System and method for resource reduction receipt log and audit trail

ABSTRACT

A system and method that tracks surplus reduction actions is disclosed. Managers and other decision makers take various actions regarding employees. Actions are recorded and tracked in a data store. Included with the action is an identifier, such as a digital signature, of the decision maker that performed the action. Affected (i.e., surplus) employees are notified that they have been selected as surplus. Affected employees acknowledge such identification as well as any confidentiality and non-compete obligations. Affected employees electronically sign non-compete agreements and such digital signatures are also recorded in the data store evidencing the employees&#39; acknowledgment of such confidentiality and non-compete obligations. Electronic keys, such as user IDs and passwords, may also be sent to employees that acknowledge surplus actions and non-compete obligations. These electronic keys enable the affected employees to access materials, such as job databases and other relocation and employment information.

BACKGROUND

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a system and method for managing humanresources for an organization. More particularly, the present inventionrelates to a system and method tracking and logging receipts andmaintaining an audit trail during a resource reduction.

2. Description of the Related Art

Managers in modern business organizations have increasingly complexroles to perform in managing the various facets of the businessorganization. While managers differ greatly in the objectives and goalsof their respective departments or areas, a key element that mostmanagers deal with are the employees in their department or area andtheir efforts to retain a highly talented pool of employees whilestaying within given resource requirements, such as salary and stockbudgets. Analyzing and assessing organizational goals and objectives isalso important in determining which employees to retain during resourcereduction exercises.

Periodically, due to business conditions and business performance,organizations trim their workforces by terminating (i.e., laying off)surplus employee resources. Reducing the number of employees is usuallya management intensive task wherein managers determine which employeesare laid-off and which employees are retained. The typical goal ofresource reduction activities is to retain the higher skilled workers ina given skill group and level while reducing the number of lower skilledemployees or those employees that detract from the achievement ofoverall organizational goals.

Using traditional human resources tools, managers manually andsubjectively determine which employees should be laid-off. Whether themanager analyzes employees' skills and past job performances is often adetermination left to the individual managers. Because of this,managers' biases towards or against various employees often plays a mostkey role in actual determinations. Higher level managers typically lackfundamental data needed to make detailed analyses of managers' reductiondecisions. Furthermore, higher level managers lack tools that wouldassist them in objectively reviewing managers' decisions in an efficientand timely basis. Because of these challenges, more skilled employeesmay be removed from the organization leaving less skilled employees totake their jobs. This talent void can be detrimental to theorganization's technical and financial well being.

Additionally, traditional systems evaluate individual employeesdifferently even though groups of employees are in similar skill groups.Managers of employees often evaluate employees based upon reviewcriteria that is established loosely, at best, by the organization. Eachmanager may evaluate employees in his or her area differently basedlargely upon criteria developed by the manager, rather than theorganization. Even if standard evaluation criteria is provided tomanagement, there is little ability for program administers to checkwhether managers are actually using the standard evaluation materials.

Furthermore, the impact of a resource reduction action is typicallydifficult to analyze and even more difficult to estimate beforehand.When conducting a resource reduction exercise, the organization usuallyhas a vague idea of the savings that will be achieved and the costs, interms of severance packages and diminished employees, of the resourcereduction. Impact estimates are often use crude formulas that simplyreduce a percentage of the overall workforce without taking into accountindividual salaries in surplus skill groups. Likewise, the impact of theactual resource reduction is often difficult to ascertain withoutcompiling lists of affected employees. These lists often do not indicatethe numbers of surplus employees that were identified in various skillgroups and levels.

Finally, traditional systems have little ability to assure that surplusemployees are individually notified and little, if any, data ismaintained evidencing employees' receipt of information regarding theresource reduction action. Some managers may fail to notify affectedemployees in a timely fashion and administrators of the resourcereduction have little ability to ascertain which employees have beennotified without manually surveying the affected employees. Surplusemployees that are in possession of trade secrets or other confidentialinformation are often not informed of their confidentiality, and oftennon-compete, obligations upon being laid-off from an organization.

What is needed, therefore, is a system and method that tracks and logsmanagement notification of affected (i.e., surplus) employees.

SUMMARY

It has been discovered that a system and method that tracks surplusreduction actions addresses the aforementioned challenges. Managers andother decision makers take various actions regarding employees. Theseactions may include evaluating employees based on predefined criteriaand identifying employees as surplus employees. Actions are recorded andtracked in a data store. Included with the action is an identifier ofthe manager, or decision maker, that performed the action. Theidentifier may include the decision maker's digital signature. Anotheraction that is performed by the managers and decision makers isidentifying those surplus employees that have knowledge of theorganization's trade secrets or other confidential information. Thisidentification is used in order to prepare non-compete agreements forsuch employees.

Affected (i.e., surplus) employees are notified that they have beenselected as surplus. Affected employees, in turn, acknowledge suchidentification. The employees' acknowledgements are also recorded andtracked. In addition, those employees with non-compete obligationselectronically sign non-compete agreements and such digital signaturesare also recorded in the data store evidencing the employees'acknowledgment of such confidentiality and non-compete obligations. Inone embodiment, electronic keys, such as user IDs and passwords, aresent to employees that acknowledge surplus actions and non-competeobligations. These electronic keys enable the affected employees toaccess materials, such as job databases and other relocation andemployment information.

The foregoing is a summary and thus contains, by necessity,simplifications, generalizations, and omissions of detail; consequently,those skilled in the art will appreciate that the summary isillustrative only and is not intended to be in any way limiting. Otheraspects, inventive features, and advantages of the present invention, asdefined solely by the claims, will become apparent in the non-limitingdetailed description set forth below.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention may be better understood, and its numerousobjects, features, and advantages made apparent to those skilled in theart by referencing the accompanying drawings. The use of the samereference symbols in different drawings indicates similar or identicalitems.

FIG. 1 is a high level diagram showing various layers of managementusing information managed and maintained by the People Planner System;

FIG. 2 is a hierarchy diagram showing resources, such as money used forsalaries, being distributed and spread from high levels of theorganization to lower levels of the organization;

FIG. 3 is a data layer diagram showing various layer components beingcreated to form an employee profile and how planning data is used togenerate actual employment data;

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a manager using the People Planner System toperform planning and analysis functions;

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a manager using the People Planner System toperform compensation functions;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the People Planner System being used toevaluate the performance of employees;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a manager identifying employees'motivators and inhibitors and the People Planner System used todetermine flight risks of individual employees;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart used to group employees into contribution/flightrisk quadrants for risk assessment;

FIG. 9 is a user interface and logic for organizational risk analysisconcerning employees;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart used to analyze risk quadrants and act uponidentified employees;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart used to analyze compensation of high contributingemployees;

FIG. 12 is a flowchart used to analyze compensation of low contributingemployees;

FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing details involved with comparingemployees' compensation using benchmark information;

FIG. 14 is a flowchart showing details involved with aggregate analysisof a department or area and comparison against budgetary requirements;

FIG. 15 is a flowchart for identifying key employees and performingretention analysis for identified employees;

FIG. 16 is a flowchart showing tracking of additional keywords by thePeople Planner System to track organizational events and reporting onemployees based on the additional keywords;

FIG. 17 a is a diagram of an employee managed in a matrix organizationwith multiple managers;

FIG. 17 b is a flowchart used to evaluate and aware employees managed ina matrix organization with multiple managers;

FIG. 18 a is a sample three tier hierarchy chart showing employees andtwo layers of management;

FIG. 18 b is a diagram showing managers being excluded from ahigher-level People Planner View;

FIG. 19 is a flowchart showing employees being selected and removed froma particular People Planner System view;

FIG. 20 is a high level flowchart showing automated activities involvedin managing organizational resources;

FIG. 21 is a flowchart showing preprocessing activities performed inplanning a resource reduction;

FIG. 22 is a flowchart showing the creation of evaluation templates forsurplus employees in identified skill groups and levels;

FIG. 23 is a flowchart showing organizational areas being eliminated aspart of an organizational resource reduction action;

FIG. 24 is a flowchart showing the identification of employees forfurther evaluation as part of an organization's resource reductionaction;

FIG. 25 is a flowchart showing the evaluation of employees in identifiedskill groups and levels for resource reduction;

FIG. 26 is a flowchart showing the grouping and sorting of evaluatedemployees for resource reduction activities;

FIG. 27 is a flowchart showing the automated analysis of evaluatedemployees with respect to an organization's needs in terms of resourcesfor various skill groups and levels;

FIG. 28 is a flowchart showing hierarchical management review ofemployees' skill evaluations;

FIG. 29 is a flowchart showing more detailed hierarchical managementanalysis of employees' skill evaluations;

FIG. 30 is a flowchart showing detailed hierarchical management analysisof employee evaluations identified as having low skills;

FIG. 31 is a flowchart showing detailed hierarchical management analysisof employee evaluations identified as having high skills;

FIG. 32 is a flowchart showing management's comparison of employeeswithin similar skill groups and levels for surplus recommendations;

FIG. 33 is a flowchart showing project office review of surplusrecommendations;

FIG. 34 is a flowchart showing legal review of surplus recommendations;

FIG. 35 is a flowchart showing financial impact estimation of a proposedsurplus action prior to evaluation of employees' skills;

FIG. 36 is a flowchart showing financial impact analysis of a surplusaction after evaluating and recommending individual employees forsurplus disposition;

FIG. 37 is a flowchart showing management notification of surplusemployees;

FIG. 38 is a flowchart showing processing of surplus notification andnon-compete obligations by affected employees;

FIG. 39 is a hierarchy chart showing relationships between processesinvolved in managing organizational resources; and

FIG. 40 is a block diagram of an information handling system capable ofimplementing the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following is intended to provide a detailed description of anexample of the invention and should not be taken to be limiting of theinvention itself. Rather, any number of variations may fall within thescope of the invention which is defined in the claims following thedescription.

FIG. 1 is a high level diagram showing various layers of managementusing information managed and maintained by the People Planner System.Executive management 100 use People Planner System 170 to enter and viewstrategic employee data 105. For example, executive management 100 mayuse People Planner System 170 to analyze potential skill deficits orreceive rollup information regarding risk assessments. This informationcan be used by executive management 100 to allocate additional resourcesto problem areas.

Division management 110 use People Planner System 170 to enter and viewdivision level employee data 115. Division management 110 use PeoplePlanner System 170 similarly to executive management 100 except with afocus on the particular division within the organization. Again, problemareas reported by managers in employee evaluations and risk assessmentscan be used to provide additional resources to projects and to alertexecutive management to potential problems. In addition, employeeanalyses can be performed at high levels such as division management 110and executive management 100 to determine whether employees with similartalents and experience levels are compensated and awarded similarly.Anomalies, such as poor performing employees receiving large salaryincreases and high performing employees receiving little or no salaryincreases can be identified, analyzed, and likely corrected.

Project managers 120 use People Planner System 170 to provide and viewproject level employee data 125. Project managers, like division andexecutive managers, can view information about any employee (includingmanagers) reporting to the project manager. While executive managementand division management may focus more on spotting anomalies andanalyzing summary data to identify potential problems, project managersmay often view individual employee information, especially to determinewhether employees are being compensated and rewarded consistently andfairly by the department managers. Project managers 120 may also holdmanagement meetings where People Planner System data pertaining to thedepartment managers is excluded so that the management team can focus onthe employees within the project and determine whether the employees arebeing treated fairly or whether poorer performing employees in onedepartment are being evaluated as higher contributors to higherperforming employees in another department. Discrepancies such as thesecan be resolved dynamically by the project manager or one of thedepartment manager changing employee data. The revised employee data canthereafter be viewed and discussed. The process of refining the PeoplePlanner System data continues until the management team is satisfiedwith the information pertaining to all employees in the project.

Department managers 130 (i.e., immediate managers, foremen, directsupervisors) use People Planner System 170 to enter and view departmentlevel employee data 135. Department managers 130 use People PlannerSystem 170 to evaluate employee performance, perform risk assessment,perform compensation and stock planning, complete or revise developmentplans for employees, perform retention plans for key employeesidentified as having executive potential or key technical potential, andprovide additional data pertaining to employees that the manager wishesto attend HR programs or company events, such as special meetings,classes, or projects.

Human resources personnel 140 use People Planner System to assistvarious levels of management with personnel related questions and usePeople Planner System to view and enter human resources data 145. Whileassisting various levels of management, human resources 140 uses theirskill and experience with analyzing employee data to aid management inmaking employee decisions and to assist managers in using People PlannerSystem 170 to appropriately analyze the People Planner Systeminformation pertaining to the managers' employees. Human resources 140also uses People Planner System to include new programs and events thatcan be used by managers with their employees. In addition, humanresources 140 may determine when certain People Planner System functionstake place. For example human resources 140 may determine when planningdata is finalized and used as a basis for current, or actual, data toreflect employees' compensation changes, stock awards, and the like.

Computer network 150 is used to connect the various managers to PeoplePlanner System 170. Computer network 150 may be a local area network(LAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN), a mainframe computer with connectedterminals, or a virtual private network (VPN) implemented over a publicnetwork such as the Internet. Computer network 150 receives PeoplePlanner requests 160 and passes the received requests to People PlannerSystem 170. People Planner System 170 processes the request andmaintains employee database 190 to store the data. In one embodiment,employee database 190 is a Lotus Notes™ database. In largeorganizations, employee data may be divided among several databases forperformance and utilization reasons. In a distributed model, employeedata for a particular area, such as a project or company location, maybe located on the same database for improved maintenance of relatedemployee records and improved lower level analyses. Higher levelanalyses use information summarized from the distributed databases inorder to provide executive management 100 and perhaps divisionmanagement 110 strategic employee data 105 and division level employeedata 115. The People Planner System process request 160 and prepares andreturns responses 180 which is viewed on the manager's display screen.

FIG. 2 is a hierarchy diagram showing resources, such as money used forsalaries, being distributed and spread from high levels of theorganization to lower levels of the organization. A limited amount ofcompensatory resources 200 are available to distribute to employees. Theamount of compensatory resources 200 depends on the size and economichealth of the organization. If fewer resources are available than inprevious years, executive management 210 may be forced to lower salariesor reduce the number of employees through voluntary or involuntarymeasures.

Executive management 210 determines how the available compensatoryresources will be spread among the various high level divisions of theorganization. In the example shown in FIG. 2, three division salary dataare determined by executive management 210 (division salary data 212,division salary data 214, and division salary data 216). The divisionsalary data is written to budget files available to the divisionmanagers in the People Planner System. The People Planner System is usedby executive management 210 to aid in the division salary determinationby providing executive management 210 with current salary needs of thevarious divisions, summaries of the employees and locations of thevarious divisions, and risk analysis information pertaining to thevarious divisions. The risk analysis information may alert executivemanagement 210 to a potential situation where key types of employees,such as those with sought after technical skills, are at risk of leavingthe organization. This type of information may prompt executivemanagement to allot more to divisions at risk so that such skilledemployees can be better compensated to avoid potential attritionproblems. In addition, the People Planner System includes projected orplanning data that aids in determining appropriate percentages ofincreases that should be allocated to the various divisions.

The division management, in turn, use the provided division salary datato determine how to spread the division compensatory amounts to areas,such as projects, within the division. In the example shown, divisionmanagement 220 receives division salary data 214 from executivemanagement. Division management 220 uses the People Planner System toallocate division salary data 214 to the various projects included inthe division. Once again, the People Planner System is used to providedivision management 220 with current salary needs of the variousprojects, summaries of the employees and locations of the variousprojects, and risk analysis information pertaining to the variousprojects. Division managers also use projected, or planning, dataincluded in the People Planner System that was provided by lower levelsof management. The People Planner System is used to distribute budgetamounts to the various project managers. In the example shown in FIG. 2,division management 220 provides salary budgeting data to threeprojects. The budgeting data is provided to the projects through thePeople Planner System (project salary data 222, 224, and 226).

Project management uses the allocated project salary data to providebudget data to the various departments that are included in the project.The project manager's determinations are made at a more micro- ratherthan macro-level with individual employees' needs often used as a basisfor the project manager's decisions. Again, the People Planner System isused to provide management, in this case project manager 230, withcurrent salary needs of the employees, summaries of the employees and ofthe various departments, and risk analysis information pertaining to thevarious employees and projects. Project managers also use projected, orplanning, data included in the People Planner System that was providedby immediate, or department, managers during prior planning cycles. ThePeople Planner System is used to distribute budget amounts to thevarious department managers. In the example shown in FIG. 2, projectmanager 230 provides salary budgeting data to three departments usingthe People Planner System (department salary data 232, 234, and 236).

Department managers receive budget data from their project managers anduse the budget data to plan compensatory changes for individualemployees in the department manager's department. In the example shown,department manager 240 receives department salary budget data 234. ThePeople Planner System is used to provide management, in this casedepartment manager 240, with current salary needs of the employees inthe department, summaries of the employees, and risk analysisinformation pertaining to the employees. Department manager 240 uses thePeople Planner System to plan compensatory changes and to record theplanned changes in order for the department manager and higher levels ofmanagement to analyze the planned changes in light of the budgetrestraints.

The People Planner System is also used to move budget amounts betweendivisions, projects, and departments. For example, if a given departmentwas initially allocated more money than deemed needed (for example,based on employee contributions and comparison of the employees' currentsalaries with those of employees in other departments), money that wasinitially allocated to the department may be reallocated by the projectmanager to a department that was initially under-funded. This same“give-and-take” can be applied to higher levels of the organization withthe People Planner System used to identify possible areas forre-allocation and facilitate the transfer of budget amounts from onearea to another.

FIG. 3 is a data layer diagram showing various layer components beingcreated to form an employee profile and how planning data is used togenerate actual employment data. Employee profile 300 includes actualand planning data corresponding to an employee. Actual data 305 includesinformation such as the employee's current salary and stock options thathave been granted to the employee, the employee's current job title,level, and performance rating and any other information that theorganization uses to track and assess employees. Actual data 305 mayalso include historical data, such as the employee's past salary levels,prior stock awards, and prior job titles, levels, and performanceratings.

The manager performs risk analysis 310 using the employee's actual datado determine the employee's value to the organization and the risk ofthe employee leaving the organization for other opportunities (see FIGS.7-10 for detailed descriptions of risk analysis using the People PlannerSystem). The manager's risk analysis is provided to the People PlannerSystem as risk planning data 315. Employee profile 300 now has a richerset of data 320 for making further decisions regarding the employee'scompensation and development.

Employee profile data 320 includes actual (or current) data as well asthe risk planning data. This data is used by the manager in using thePeople Planner System's compensation planner 330. Based on theemployee's actual data and the risk analysis data the manager is betterequipped to plan changes to the employee's compensation. At this stage,compensation planning data 335 may simply identify the employee for acertain level of salary increase (i.e., significant increase, increase,cost of living increase, and no increase) it may actually plan a certaindollar-amount salary change for the employee. Compensation planning data335 is used by the People Planner System to create an even richer set ofdata (340) that now includes actual data, risk planning data, andcompensation planning data.

Employee profile data 340 is used by the People Planner System for themanager's stock planning 350. Actual data, risk planning data, andcompensation planning data aids in the determination of whether to planto give the employee stock options and, if so, how many options to planon giving to the employee. Risk planning data is usually importantduring stock option considerations because the options typically vestover a period years providing an incentive for employees that may be atrisk for leaving to stay in the organization until their options vest.In addition, the value of prior stock option awards is also useful inmaking the determination because prior options that are “under water”(i.e., the price of the option is now greater than the current price ofthe stock) have less influence on employees who are considering leavingthe organization. In these situations, it may be prudent to grantadditional options at the new (lower) current stock price to provideadditional incentives to retain the employee. Stock planning data 355 isadded to employee profile 300 creating an even richer set of employeeprofile data (360).

Compensatory considerations often include both compensatory planningconsiderations (step 330) as well as stock planning considerations (step350). The manager may go back and forth between various stages in orderto refine the data and better assess the employee's risk of leaving andthe right mix of salary increases and stock option awards. For example,for a contributing employee that is at risk of leaving the organization,the manager may first decide to give the employee a significant increasein salary. However the employee's risk of leaving may be viewed as moreimportant that the employee's current contribution. As such, the managermay decide to plan on giving the employee a sizable number of optionsthat vest over a number of years and lower the salary increase to astandard increase, perhaps in light of salary budget constraints. Themanager may go back and forth several times between compensationplanning 330 and stock option planning 350 for a given employee untilthe manager feel she has the right mix. For additional assistance, themanager can use the People Planner System to engage the advice andexperience of human resources personnel who are trained to help managersevaluate and analyze employee situations.

Employee profile 300 now includes employee data 360 which includesactual (current) employee data, risk planning data, compensationplanning data, and stock planning data. Employee data 360 provides apicture for the manager to use in performing other activities such asdevelopment planning 364, retention planning 374, and identifying theemployee for additional HR programs or organization events (382).Development planning 364 results in development planning data 368 whichis added to the employee's profile data. Likewise, retention planning374 results in retention planning data 378 and additional planning 382results in additional employee data 386 which are each added to theemployee's profile data. Retention planning 374 involves identifyingemployees with high potential early in the employee's career andestablishing and tracking employee goals or milestones so that the fullpotential of such employees is realized by the organization (see FIG. 15for more details regarding retention planning).

Employee profile data 370 now includes actual (current) data, riskplanning data, compensation planning data, stock planning data,development planning data, retention planning data, and additionalplanning data providing a large snapshot of the employee, the employee'scurrent contributions, opportunities and challenges associated with theemployee, and near- and far-term plans for the employee's career withthe organization.

The data captured in employee profile 300 is analyzed in managementmeetings and often refined in light of the employee's contribution andexpected value in comparison with that of other employees. The salaryand stock option planning may have only indicated that the organizationplanned to give the employee a “significant increase” or “significantstock option award” without specifying the actual dollar amount of theincrease or the actual number of shares and vesting period for stock. Inthis case, the planned salary increase and stock option award areconverted to actual dollar and stock figures in light of the salary andstock option budgets. The planned amounts are then made effective at acertain point in time during roll-over process 390.

During roll-over process 390 certain planning items, such ascompensation and stock planning figures are moved to the employee'sactual (current) data. Other items such as the employee's evaluationrating are also moved from planning areas to the actual data area. Prioractual figures are moved to historical actual data areas in order tokeep a record of the employee's prior salaries, stock options, andevaluations. Short term planning data areas, such as the salary planningarea and the stock planning area are cleared in order to prepare for thenext planning cycle. The new actual data is used in a productionenvironment to generate paychecks with the employee's new salary leveland to generate stock option data that is provided to employees foracceptance of the newly granted options and eventual exercise of suchoptions. Long term planning data, such as risk analysis data,development planning data, and retention planning data are retained forfurther refinement in future planning cycles so that the planningefforts of the manager are not lost or forgotten. In addition, when anemployee moves from one department to another department (or when a newmanager is assigned to a department) the new manager uses the PeoplePlanner System to view the planning and actual data established by themanager's predecessor, thus aiding and smoothing the transition from onemanager to the next.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a manager using the People Planner System toperform certain planning and analysis functions. People Planner Data 400includes employee profiles 410 and Human Resources program data 405 aswell as other data. Employee profile data 410 includes planning factors415 (such as risk planning data, salary and stock planning data,development planning data, etc.) corresponding to employees. Employeeprofile data 410 also includes actual data 420 (such as the currentsalary, stock option grants, evaluation rating, etc.) corresponding toemployees.

Manager 425 uses various components of the People Planner System to makepre-planning requests 430 to pre-planning tool 435 included with thePeople Planner System. Pre-planning tool 435 reads HR program data 405and employee profile data 410 alerting the manager of new humanresources programs and identifying employees that, based on the HRprogram criteria, might be considered for various programs. Manager 425may select one or more employees for the HR program and provide planningresponse 440 which is used by pre-planning tool 435 to retain themanager's selections in selected employee profiles 410.

What-If Scenarios tool 450 is used by manager 425 to try variousplanning factors and explore the overall planning results withoutcommitting to the planning factors. For example, manager 425 may providewhat-if request 445 to look at the department if everyone that isidentified as being a high risk to leave the company was given asignificant salary increase and an award of stock options. What-ifresults 455 would be returned to manager 425 by the what-if scenariotool and display the effect on the department. The manager may determinethat too much of the salary budget would be used for these individualsand not leave enough for high contributing employees that are not atrisk of leaving. Scenario tool 450 can be used repeatedly to help themanager gain an understanding of the effects of certain planningdecisions. If manager 425 is satisfied with the scenario results, theplanning factors used to create the results can be applied to employeeprofiles 410. In addition, HR personnel can share the manager's onlineview of such scenario results and provide guidance for refining theplanning factors. If the what-if results are not acceptable by manager425 then the planning factors used by the what-if tool can be discardedand not applied to employee profiles 410.

Employee analysis tool 465 is used by manager 425 to further analyze anindividual employee or a group of employees included in employeeprofiles 410. Manager 425 provides employee requests 460 to the employeeanalysis component of the People Planner System. Manager 425 usesemployee analysis tool 465 to evaluate the contributions of the employeeand determine whether the employee is a low or high contributor andwhether a promotion should be planned for the employee. Thesedeterminations are provided in the manager's employee responses 470 thatare used by employee analysis component 465 and retained in employeeprofile 410. The manager's employee responses 470 may identify employeesas low or high contributors and may also assign an evaluation rating(i.e., “A,” “B,” “C,” etc.) to the employee (see FIG. 6 for furtherdetail regarding employee evaluations using the People Planner System).

Risk assessment component 480 of the People Planner System is used bymanager 425 to identify employees that are at risk of leaving theorganization. Manager 425 provides risk requests 475 to risk assessmentcomponent 480 identifying one or more employees from employee profile410. Risk assessment tool 480 assists the manager in evaluating risksconcerning employees. Manager's risk responses regarding such employeesis used by the risk assessment tool to update the employee's riskplanning data maintained in the employee's employee profile 410.

FIG. 5 includes additional People Planner System tools used by managersto plan for employee salary changes, stock options, and other awards.People Planner Data 500 includes salary budget data 505, availableoption data 510, employee profiles 512 and award budget data 520. Salarybudget data 505 includes available salary data that has been allocatedto the manager's area or department. Likewise, available option data 510includes stock options available for the manager to grant to one or moreemployees. Employee profile data 512 includes planning factors data 516and actual, or current, data 518. Award budget data 520 includes budgetsfor both monetary awards 525 and non-monetary awards 530. Non-monetaryawards may include extra vacation days, admission to a specialorganizational event or program, lunch with an executive or the like.

Manager 540 uses salary tool component 550 of the People Planner Systemto plan salary changes for employees. Salary input 545 includes thesalary changes requested by the manager. Salary tool 550 updates theappropriate employee profile planning factors 516 data for the selectedemployee. Salary tool 550 also provides manager 540 with updated salaryplanning data 555 comparing the manager's planning data for one or moreemployees with salary budget 505. Salary tool 550 can also be used tocompare employee's actual data 518 and planning factors 516 withorganizational, regional, or national averages for people with similarskills and contribution levels. Salary tool 550 can also be used toanalyze whether people are being compensated fairly. For example, salarytool 550 can aid the manager in identifying high contributors that arereceiving small or no salary increases. On the other side, salary tool550 can be used to identify low contributing employees that are plannedto receive large or significant salary increases.

Stock option tool 565 is a People Planner System component to aidmanager 540 in identifying employees that should receive stock options.Stock option tool 565 reads the available stock option budget data 510which includes the amount of options that are available for themanager's employees. Stock option tool 565 also reads employee profiledata 512, particularly planning factors data 516 which includes riskplanning data and contribution data corresponding to the employees. Thisinformation is used by manager 540 to determine whether the employee isa high contributor to the organization with critical skills and theflight risk the employee presents to the organization. Based on thisanalysis, manager 540 decides whether to plan to award the employeestock options and, if so, how many options to provide and the vestingperiod for the options (stock input 560). Updated stock data 570 isprovided from stock option tool 565 to manager 540 in response to stockoption input 560 provided by the manager. The manager can use theupdated stock data to determine whether the stock planning data shouldbe changed.

Awards tool 580 is a People Planner System component to aid manager 540in identifying employees that should receive monetary and non-monetaryawards. Awards tool 580 reads the available awards budget data 520 whichincludes the amount of monetary and non-monetary awards options that areavailable for the manager's employees. Awards tool 580 also readsemployee profile data 512, particularly contribution data correspondingto the employees. This information is used by manager 540 to identifyemployees that are planned to receive an award, the type of award theemployee is planned to receive, and the amount of the award if the awardis monetary (award input 575). This data is stored in the appropriateemployee profiles 512. Updated award data 585 is provided from awardstool 580 to manager 540 in response to award input data 575 provided bythe manager. The manager can use the updated award data to determinewhether the award planning data should be changed.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the People Planner System being used toevaluate the performance of employees. Processing commences at 600whereupon the first employee is selected (step 610) from department data605 stored in the People Planner System. The manager analyzes theemployee on a variety of planning factors. A determination is made as towhether the employee is a top contributor for the organization (decision615). If the employee is a top contributor, decision 615 branches to“yes” branch 618 whereupon a flag is set in the employee's PeoplePlanner Data indicating that the employee is a top contributor (step620). On the other hand, if the employee is not a top contributor,decision 615 branches to “no” branch 622 whereupon another determinationis made as to whether the employee is a low contributor (decision 625).If the employee is a low contributor, decision 625 branches to “yes”branch 628 whereupon a flag is set in the employee's People Planner Dataindicating that the employee is a low contributor (step 630). If neitherflag is set (i.e. the low or high contributor flags) then the employeeis deemed an average contributor to the organization.

The next decisions deals with the amount of pay increase to plan ongiving the employee. A determination is made as to whether the employeeshould receive a significant, or high, increase in salary (decision635). If the employee should receive a significant salary increase,decision 635 branches to “yes” branch 638 whereupon a flag is set in theemployee's People Planner Data indicating that the employee shouldreceive a significant salary increase (step 640). On the other hand, ifthe employee should not receive a significant salary increase, decision635 branches to “no” branch 642 whereupon another determination is madeas to whether the employee should receive no increase, or perhaps asalary reduction (decision 645). If the employee should receive noincrease, or perhaps a salary reduction, decision 645 branches to “yes”branch 648 whereupon a flag is set in the employee's People Planner Dataindicating that the employee should receive no increase, or perhaps asalary reduction (step 650). If neither flag is set (i.e. thesignificant increase or no increase flags) then the employee is plannedto receive a normal salary increase.

A determination is made, based factors such as the employee'scontribution to the organization, current level, and time spent at thecurrent level, as to whether the employee should be promoted during thenext cycle of promotions (decision 660). A higher level position oftenmeans greater potential salary and stock option awards. If the managerdetermines that the employee should be promoted based on variousfactors, decision 660 branches to “yes” branch 662 whereupon a flag isset in the employee's People Planner Data indicating that the employeeshould be promoted (step 685). On the other hand, if the manager doesnot decide that the employee should be promoted, decision 660 branchesto “no” branch 668 bypassing the promotion setting step.

A determination is made, based factors such as the employee's skills,experience, contribution, and risk of the employee leaving theorganization, as to whether the employee should receive stock options(decision 670). An employee with critical skills which are marketable toother competing organizations often receive stock options to provide anincentive for such employees to remain with the organization for theamount of time it takes for the options to vest. If the managerdetermines that the employee should receive stock options, decision 660branches to “yes” branch 662 whereupon a flag is set in the employee'sPeople Planner Data indicating that the employee should receive stockoptions (step 675). On the other hand, if the manager does not decidethat the employee should receive stock options, decision 670 branches to“no” branch 678 bypassing the stock option setting step.

A determination is made as to whether there are more employees that themanager needs to evaluate (decision 680). If there are more employees,decision 680 branches to “yes” branch 685 which selects the nextemployee (step 685) from department data 605 and loops back to evaluatethe employee. This looping continues until all employees have beenevaluated, at which time decision 680 branches to “no” branch 688whereupon processing ends at 695.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a manager identifying employees'motivators and inhibitors and the People Planner System used todetermine flight risks of individual employees. Processing commences at700 whereupon the first employee is selected (step 705) from departmentdata 702 stored in the People Planner System.

The manager selects the first motivator for the selected employee (step710). As the name implies, motivators are factors that motivate theselected employee in his or her job. Examples of motivators includeautonomy, base salary, communication, decision making authority, degreeof challenge, geographic location, immediate management, monetaryrecognition, and opportunity for advancement. By the manager'sunderstanding of the employee's likes and dislikes and from discussionsor feedback received from the employee, the manager determines whatmotivates the employee and what inhibits, or hinders, the employee. Ifthe selected employee is motivated by autonomy, the manager selectsautonomy as a motivator and then applies a weight, or level ofimportance, to the motivator (step 715). If an employee is greatlymotivated by autonomy, a greater weight is applied to the motivator. Themotivator and corresponding weight are saved in the employee's PeoplePlanner Data for future use in calculating the employee's flight risk.

A determination is made as to whether there are other motivatorscorresponding to the employee (decision 720). If there are moremotivators, decision 720 branches to “yes” branch 722 whereupon the nextmotivator is selected (step 725) and a weight is applied (step 715).This looping continues until there are no more motivators to apply tothe employee at which time decision 720 branches to “no” branch 728whereupon the process repeats for identifying inhibitors that apply tothe employee.

The manager selects the first inhibitor for the selected employee (step730)). As the name implies, inhibitors are factors that inhibit theselected employee in his or her job. Examples of inhibitors includeautonomy, base salary, communication, decision making authority, degreeof challenge, geographic location, immediate management, monetaryrecognition, and opportunity for advancement. By the manager'sunderstanding of the employee's likes and dislikes and from discussionsor feedback received from the employee, the manager determines whatinhibits, or hinders, the employee. If the selected employee isinhibited by opportunity for advancement, the manager selectsopportunity for advancement as a inhibitor and then applies a weight, orlevel of importance, to the inhibitor (step 735). If an employee isgreatly inhibited by opportunity for advancement, a greater weight isapplied to the inhibitor. The inhibitor and corresponding weight aresaved in the employee's People Planner Data for future use incalculating the employee's flight risk.

A determination is made as to whether there are other inhibitorscorresponding to the employee (decision 740). If there are moreinhibitors, decision 740 branches to “yes” branch 742 whereupon the nextinhibitor is selected (step 745) and a weight is applied (step 735).This looping continues until there are no more inhibitors to apply tothe employee at which time decision 740 branches to “no” branch 748.

The employee's flight risk is calculated (step 750) after the employee'smotivators and inhibitors have been identified and weighed. Thecalculation may be performed by the manager by displaying the list ofthe employee motivators and inhibitors arranged by weighted value andproviding the manager with employee data, such as salary data and jobdescriptions, to aid the manager in determining a flight risk value bycomparing and contrasting the employee's motivators and inhibitors withthe employees current circumstances. The flight risk calculation canalso be computed using historical modeling data to compare theemployee's motivators, inhibitors, and current job situation with otherthat have left the company. A strong similarity between the employee'sprofile and employees that left the organization results in a higherflight risk, while a weaker similarity results in a correspondinglylower flight risk.

A determination is made as to whether there are more employees for whichthe manager needs to assess risk (decision 760). If there are moreemployees, decision 760 branches to “yes” branch 765 which selects (step770) the next employee from department data 702 and loops back toanalyze the employee. This looping continues until all employees havebeen analyzed, at which time decision 760 branches to “no” branch 775whereupon processing ends at 795.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of logic used to group employees intocontribution/flight risk quadrants for risk assessment. Processingcommences at 800 whereupon the first employee is selected (step 810)from department data 805 stored in the People Planner System.

The employee's contribution level is assigned (step 820). In oneembodiment, the employee's contribution level is assigned by performingan employee evaluation process integrated with the People PlannerSystem, such as the process described in FIG. 6. The employee's flightrisk is also assigned (step 825). In one embodiment, the employee'sflight risk is assigned by performing an risk assessment processintegrated with the People Planner System, such as the process describedin FIG. 7.

Determinations are made based on the employee's contribution level andflight risk in order to assign a “risk quadrant” to the employee. Riskquadrants therefore include: employees with low contribution to theorganization and high risk to leave the organization (quadrant “A”),employees with high contribution to the organization and high risk toleave the organization (quadrant “B”), employees with high contributionto the organization and low risk to leave the organization (quadrant“C”), and employees with low contribution to the organization and lowrisk to leave the organization (quadrant “D”). Grouping employees intorisk quadrants aids management, especially upper management, inanalyzing large groups of employees, such as a site location, anddetermining whether future attrition problems are likely based on thepercentage of employees in quadrant “A” and especially quadrant “B.” Ifproblem areas exist, management can analyze employees in a givenquadrant to determine if common inhibitors or motivators exist that canbe used to encourage employees to remain with the organization.

A determination is made as to whether the selected employee'scontribution to the organization is “high” (decision 830). If themanager indicates that the selected employee's contribution is high,decision 830 branches to “yes” branch 832 whereupon a decision is madeas to whether, based on the employee's inhibitors and motivators, theemployee presents a flight risk to the organization (decision 835). Ifthe employee presents a flight risk, decision 835 branches to “yes”branch 838 whereupon the employee is assigned (step 840) to quadrant “B”indicating a high contributor presenting a high flight risk to theorganization. On the other hand, if the employee does not present aflight risk, decision 835 branches to “no” branch 842 whereupon theemployee is assigned (step 845) to quadrant “C” indicating a highcontributor presenting a low flight risk to the organization.

Returning to decision 830, if the selected employee's contribution tothe organization is not “high”, decision 830 branches to “no” branch 848whereupon a decision is made as to whether, based on the employee'sinhibitors and motivators, the employee presents a flight risk to theorganization (decision 850). If the employee presents a flight risk,decision 850 branches to “yes” branch 852 whereupon the employee isassigned (step 855) to quadrant “A” indicating a low contributorpresenting a high flight risk to the organization. On the other hand, ifthe employee does not present a flight risk, decision 850 branches to“no” branch 858 whereupon the employee is assigned (step 860) toquadrant “D” indicating a low contributor presenting a low flight riskto the organization.

A determination is made as to whether there are more employees that needto be assigned to a risk quadrant (decision 870). If there are moreemployees, decision 870 branches to “yes” branch 875 which selects (step880) the next employee from department data 805 and loops back to assignthe employee to a risk quadrant. This looping continues until allemployees have been analyzed, at which time decision 870 branches to“no” branch 885 whereupon processing ends at 895.

FIG. 9 is a user interface and logic for organizational risk analysisconcerning employees. Screen 900 shows a risk analysis summary showingthe percentage of employees that were assigned to the various riskquadrants. Screen 900 includes groupings 910 and summary data 950. Theuser selects one of the groupings and a summary data item. Selectedgrouping 920 and selected data 940 are used by summary process 930 tocreate new summary process 960 which has new groupings 980 based uponthe previously selected grouping. New summary 960 also includes newsummary data 970 based upon the previously chosen grouping and summarydata item. The new summary, including new groupings 980 and new summarydata 970 are displayed in screen 990. In the example shown, the userselected the grouping 985 (“Employees by Division”) and selected the “B”quadrant. The division breakdown for the “B” quadrant is therefore shownin screen 990. Further groupings and selected data items can be selectedto more fully understand the risk analysis data.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart used to analyze risk quadrants and act uponidentified employees. Processing commences at 1000 whereupon the firstrisk quadrant (i.e. Quadrant “A”) is selected (step 1010). The selectedquadrant is displayed to the manager (step 1020, see FIG. 9, screen 900for an example quadrant view). The manager analyzes the risk quadrantdata to determine whether changes are needed (step 1025, see FIG. 9,screen 990 for an example of analyzing risk quadrants). Risk quadrantscan be analyzed down to viewing the group of employees that are includedin a particular risk quadrant. A determination is made by the manager ischanges are needed to any employees within the currently viewed riskquadrant (decision 1025). If changes are needed, decision 1025 branchesto “yes” branch 1028 whereupon an employee in the risk quadrant isselected (step 1030). A determination is made as to whether changes areneeded to the employee's incentives (decision 1040). If changes areneeded to the selected employee's incentives, decision 1040 branches to“yes” branch 1048 whereupon the manager makes changes to the employee'splanned nomination for stock options or other non-monetary awardincentives designed to retain employees (step 1048). If changes are notneeded to the selected employee's incentives, decision 1040 branches to“no” branch 1058 bypassing changes to the employee's stock options andnon-monetary awards.

Another determination is made as to whether to edit the employee data,such as risk planning data (decision 1060). This determination may be inlight of seeing the employee in a quadrant that does not match manager'sknowledge of the employee or in light of new information learned aboutthe employee's inhibitors or motivators. In addition, this decisionmight be made because of a recent or dramatic change in the employee'scontribution or value to the organization based on newly acquired skillsor experiences. If changes are needed to the employee's People PlannerData, decision 1060 branches to “yes” branch 1068 whereupon the manageredits one or more employee planning factors (step 1070). On the otherhand, if the manager does not need to edit the employee's planningfactors, decision 1060 branches to “no” branch 1072 bypassing the editemployee planning factors step.

After changes are made to the selected employee the quadrant data viewis updated to reflect the changed information (step 1075) and processingreturns (loop 1078) to view the quadrant information. This loopingcontinues until no changes are needed, at which point decision 1025branches to “no” branch 1082.

A determination is made as to whether there are more quadrants toanalyze (decision 1085). If there are more quadrants to analyze,decision 1085 branches to “yes” branch 1088 whereupon the next quadrantis selected (step 1090) and processing loops back to analyze theselected quadrant. This looping continues until there are no morequadrants to analyze, at which point decision 1085 branches to “no”branch 1092 and risk analysis processing ends at 1095.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart used to analyze compensation of high contributingemployees. The immediate (i.e., department) manager may perform theanalysis in addition to higher level managers and HR personnel checkingthe fairness of employee evaluations.

Processing commences at 1100 whereupon the People Planner System selectstop contributing employees that have not been identified as havingcritical skills (step 1105). Top contributing employees often havecritical skills that make them valuable, and therefore highcontributors, to the organization. This selection helps managementanalyze why an employee has been identified as a top contributor withoutcritical skills. It may be that the employee's critical skills were notnoted or that the employee was incorrectly identified as a topcontributor. In some cases, it may simply be that an employee withoutcritical skills is a top contributor because of the employee's workethic and ability to handle more tasks in a high quality manner. Theselected employees are displayed to the manager (step 1110). The managerviews the selected employees and can view detailed data regarding theemployees. A determination is made as to whether an employee's data inthe People Planner System needs to be changed in light of the displayeddata (decision 1115). If an employee's data needs to be changed,decision 1115 branches to “yes” branch 1118 whereupon an employee isselected and data pertaining to the employee is changed (step 1120) andprocessing loops back to re-analyze the group in light of the changeddata. This looping continues until no employee data needs to be revised,at which time decision 1115 branches to “no” branch 1122.

Another selection identifies employees having critical skills that havenot been identified as top contributing employees (step 1125). This isthe reverse situation as the selection performed in step 1105. Theselected employees are displayed to the manager (step 1130). The managerviews the selected employees and can view detailed data regarding theemployees. A determination is made as to whether an employee's data inthe People Planner System needs to be changed in light of the displayeddata (decision 1135). If an employee's data needs to be changed,decision 1135 branches to “yes” branch 1138 whereupon an employee isselected and data pertaining to the employee is changed (step 1140) andprocessing loops back to re-analyze the group in light of the changeddata. This looping continues until no employee data needs to be revised,at which time decision 1135 branches to “no” branch 1142.

A further selection identifies employees identified as top contributingemployees that are not receiving a significant pay increase (step 1145).Top contributing employees need to be rewarded for their efforts. Insome cases, analysis of an employee in this group may reveal an employeethat, for some reason, is currently overpaid in light of the employee'sposition, job title, and level and therefore does not require asignificant salary increase. In other cases, an oversight may haveoccurred in not planning significant salary increases for topcontributing employees. The selected employees are displayed to themanager (step 1150). The manager views the selected employees and canview detailed data regarding the employees. A determination is made asto whether an employee's data in the People Planner System needs to bechanged in light of the displayed data (decision 1155). If an employee'sdata needs to be changed, decision 1155 branches to “yes” branch 1158whereupon an employee is selected and data pertaining to the employee ischanged (step 1160) and processing loops back to reanalyze the group inlight of the changed data. This looping continues until no employee dataneeds to be revised, at which time decision 1155 branches to “no” branch1162.

Another selection identifies employees identified as top contributingemployees that are not receiving a grant of stock options (step 1165).Top contributing employees need to be rewarded for their efforts andstock options present an incentive for such top contributing employeesto remain at the company. In some cases, analysis of an employee in thisgroup may reveal an employee that does not warrant a stock option grant.For example, an high contributing employee with little flight risk mayprefer awards and greater salary increases instead of stock options. Inother cases, an oversight may have occurred in not planning stock optionawards for top contributing employees. The selected employees aredisplayed to the manager (step 1170). The manager views the selectedemployees and can view detailed data regarding the employees. Adetermination is made as to whether an employee Is data in the PeoplePlanner System needs to be changed in light of the displayed data(decision 1175). If an employee's data needs to be changed, decision1175 branches to “yes” branch 1178 whereupon an employee is selected anddata pertaining to the employee is changed (step 1180) and processingloops back to re-analyze the group in light of the changed data. Thislooping continues until no employee data needs to be revised, at whichtime decision 1175 branches to “no” branch 1182 whereupon this phase ofcompensation planning ends at 1195.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart used to analyze compensation of low contributingemployees and to query additional anomalies with high and lowcontributors. The immediate (i.e., department) manager may perform theanalysis in addition to higher level managers and HR personnel checkingthe fairness of employee evaluations.

Processing commences at 1200 whereupon the People Planner System selectslow contributing employees that have been identified as having criticalskills (step 1205). Low contributing employees often do not havecritical skills. This selection helps management analyze why an employeehas been identified as a low contributor with critical skills. It may bethat the employee's critical skills were incorrectly noted or that theemployee was incorrectly identified as a low contributor. In some cases,it may simply be that an employee with critical skills is a lowcontributor because of the employee's work ethic or attitude andinability to handle tasks in a quality manner. The selected employeesare displayed to the manager (step 1210). The manager views the selectedemployees and can view detailed data regarding the employees. Adetermination is made as to whether an employee's data in the PeoplePlanner System needs to be changed in light of the displayed data(decision 1215). If an employee's data needs to be changed, decision1215 branches to “yes” branch 1218 whereupon an employee is selected anddata pertaining to the employee is changed (step 1220) and processingloops back to re-analyze the group in light of the changed data. Thislooping continues until no employee data needs to be revised, at whichtime decision 1215 branches to “no” branch 1222.

Another selection identifies employees identified as low contributingemployees that are receiving a significant pay increase (step 1225). Lowcontributing employees typically are not rewarded as handsomely ashigher contributing employees. In some cases, analysis of an employee inthis group may reveal a low contributing employee that, for some reason,is currently underpaid in light of the employee's position, job title,and level and therefore requires a significant salary increase. In othercases, an oversight may have occurred in planning significant salaryincreases for low contributing employees. The selected employees aredisplayed to the manager (step 1230). The manager views the selectedemployees and can view detailed data regarding the employees. Adetermination is made as to whether an employee's data in the PeoplePlanner System needs to be changed in light of the displayed data(decision 1235). If an employee's data needs to be changed, decision1235 branches to “yes” branch 1238 whereupon an employee is selected anddata pertaining to the employee is changed (step 1240) and processingloops back to re-analyze the group in light of the changed data. Thislooping continues until no employee data needs to be revised, at whichtime decision 1235 branches to “no” branch 1242.

A further selection identifies employees identified as low contributingemployees that are receiving a grant of stock options (step 1245).Analysis of these employees may reveal an employees that do not warrantstock option grants. It may also be revealed that some employees in thisgroup are not low contributors and have been identified as suchincorrectly. The selected employees are displayed to the manager (step1250). The manager views the selected employees and can view detaileddata regarding the employees. A determination is made as to whether anemployee's data in the People Planner System needs to be changed inlight of the displayed data (decision 1255). If an employee's data needsto be changed, decision 1255 branches to “yes” branch 1258 whereupon anemployee is selected and data pertaining to the employee is changed(step 1260) and processing loops back to re-analyze the group in lightof the changed data. This looping continues until no employee data needsto be revised, at which time decision 1255 branches to “no” branch 1262.

Further top and bottom contributor queries can be performed to furtheridentify anomalies with the planning factors currently in place forindividual employees (step 1270). People Planner Data pertaining tothese employees can be changed as needed to better reflect theemployees' contributions and rewards and compensation for suchcontributions (step 1280). Compensation planning thereafter ends at1295.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing details involved with comparingemployees' compensation using benchmark information. Processingcommences at 1300 whereupon the first employee in a group, such as adepartment or project, being analyzed is selected (step 1310). Fromprior People Planner System processes, the employee should already havea job level and job title, however if the employee is new or otherwisedoes not have a level and job title this data is supplied to the PeoplePlanner System and stored in the employee's People Planner Data area(step 1320). In addition, compensation levels should already be set forthe employee's current compensation and salary planning data for theemployee's next pay increase may already be stored in the People PlannerSystem. If the employee does not have a current salary, then theemployee's current compensation amounts are entered into the PeoplePlanner System (step 1325).

The employee's job title and level (i.e., “Senior Programmer”) areconverted to a corresponding national or geographic job title and level(i.e., “software programmer with 5 or more years of experience”) using atable relating the company's job titles and levels to nationallyrecognized titles and levels (step 1330). The national job title andlevel is used to search (step 1340) national or geographic employmentdata 1335 for national averages and other data about national salaryranges for the job title and level (i.e., average salary for first,second, third and fourth quartiles, etc.). Other averages are retrievedfrom the People Planner System for the salary data regarding theemployee's job title and level within the organization (step 1350). Thisdata may be for the organization as a whole, the employee's site,project, or department or combinations thereof.

Variances between the employees actual (and possibly planned)compensation and various retrieved national and organizationalbenchmarks is displayed to management or human resources personnel (step1360). Large variances indicating that an employee is underpaid maywarrant changing the employee's planning data, for example to identifythe employee for a significant increase, to get the employees salary inline with the benchmark data. A determination is made as to whether theemployee's data needs to be revised (decision 1370). If the employee'sdata needs to be revised, decision 1370 branches to “yes” branch 1372which loops back to enable management or human resources to resetemployee information (i.e., compensation amounts) and redisplay the newplanning factors in comparison with the available benchmarks. Thislooping continues until no further revisions to the employee's data areneeded, at which point decision 1370 branches to “no” branch 1378whereupon a determination is made as to whether there are more employeesto analyze (decision 1380).

If there are more employees to analyze, decision 1380 branches to “yes”branch 1385 which selects the next employee (step 1390) and loops backto perform a comparison analysis for the selected employee. This loopingcontinues until no more employees in the selected group need to beprocessed, at which time decision 1380 branches to “no” branch 1392 andprocessing ends at 1395.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart showing details involved with aggregate analysisof a department or area and comparison against budgetary requirements.Processing commences at 1400 whereupon various compensation counters,such as total pay increases, total stock options, total promotions, andtotal awards, are initialized to zero (step 1410). People Planner Datafor all employees within a particular group, such as a project ordepartment, are selected from the People Planner Data (step 1420). Thefirst employee from the selected group is selected (step 1425). Thecounters for planned pay increases, stock options, promotions and awardsare accumulated by adding the current value of such counters to theplanned pay increase, planned stock option grant, planned promotion, andplanned awards for the currently selected employee (step 1430). Adetermination is made as to whether more employees exist in the group tobe processed (decision 1440). If more employees exist, decision 1440branches to “yes” branch 1445 and the next employee in the group isselected (step 1450) and processing loops back to add the selectedemployees compensatory information to the running totals stored in thecounters. This looping continues until all employees in the group havebeen processed and all planned pay increases, stock awards, promotions,and awards have been totaled. When all employees have been processed,decision 1440 branches to “no” branch 1452 whereupon budget amounts areretrieved (step 1450) from group budget data 1455 (such as a departmentor project budget). Variances between the planned salary increases,stock awards, promotions, and awards and budgeted amounts are calculatedand displayed (step 1470). A determination is made, based on thedisplayed variances, as to whether changes are needed to employeeplanning factors to rectify any variances (decision 1475). If changesare needed, decision 1475 branches to “yes” branch 1478 which allowsmanagement or human resources personnel to select one or more employees(step 1480), increase or decrease planned salary increases, stockawards, promotions, and awards (step 1485), and loop back to thebeginning to reprocess the group and determine any further variances andchanges needed. This looping continues until variances have beenrectified and further changes to employee data is not needed, at whichpoint decision 1475 branches to “no” branch 1492 and processing ends at1495.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart for identifying key employees and performingretention analysis for identified employees. Processing commences at1500 whereupon a first employee is selected (step 1510) from employeedata 1505. A determination is made as to whether the selected employeeis a technical employee or identified as a potential executive candidate(decision 1520). If the employee is identified as a possible keytechnical employee, decision 1520 branches to “yes” branch 1528whereupon the employee's technical experience is identified and storedin the People Planner System (step 1530). On the other hand, if theemployee is identified as a potential executive candidate, decision 1520branches to “no” branch 1522 whereupon the employee's skill and areas ofexpertise are identified (step 1525).

The next career goal for the selected employee is identified (step 1540)along with the expected amount of time planned for the employee toachieve the next goal (step 1545). The employee's ultimate goal (i.e.,“Chief Technical Architect,” “Division Vice President,” etc.) isidentified (step 1550) along with the expected amount of time plannedfor the employee to achieve the ultimate goal (step 1555). A mentor,such as an experienced employee in the organization, is identified forthe employee (step 1560). In addition, special certification or trainingplanned for the employee to reach the goals is identified (step 1570)along with any additional comments regarding the employee's potential.The identified information is stored in the employee's People PlannerData and used for long term management and direction of the employee.

A determination is made as to whether other potential key technical orexecutive candidates exist in the group (decision 1580). If morecandidates exist in the group, decision 1580 branches to “yes” branch1585 which selects the next employee candidate (step 1590) and loopsback to process the next candidate. This looping continues until no morecandidates are identified whereupon decision 1580 branches to “no”branch 1592 and processing ends at 1595.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart showing tracking of additional keywords by thePeople Planner System to track organizational events and reporting onemployees based on the additional keywords. Keywords can be added to thePeople Planner System to track data such as employees attending animportant conference, employees selected for a special organizationalretreat, employees nominated for special awards, or any other number ofitems that the organization wishes to track for employees.

Processing commences at 1600 whereupon an administrator defines one ormore keywords in the People Planner System (step 1610). The PeoplePlanner System includes a notice area where notices about new keywordsand other People Planner System changes are disseminated to management.An email message or the People Planner System notice area is used toinform management of the new keywords (step 1620). Management selects anemployee for one of the newly defined keywords (step 1625). The keywordis set, or flagged, in the People Planner Data corresponding to theselected employee (step 1630). A determination is made as to whethermore employees should be selected for the newly added keyword (decision1640). This determination can be made over an amount of time and may bemade by several different managers when analyzing their employees. Ifmore employees should be selected for the keyword, decision 1640branches to “yes” branch 1645 whereupon the next employee is selectedfor the keyword (step 1650) and processing loops back to set the keywordin the People Planner Data corresponding to the selected employee. Thislooping continues until no more employees are selected for the keywordwhereupon decision 1640 branches to “no” branch 1655. Depending on thekeyword a deadline may be established for a keyword so that employeesare identified for the keyword before the deadline. For example, toprepare for a conference, a deadline typically exists for registeringfor the conference. At some point, a People Planner System administratorselects all employees that were selected for a particular keyword andreports or special processing takes place with the selected employees(step 1660). For example, if the keyword corresponds to a conference,the People Planner System would process the selected employees and sendregistrations for each employee to the conference coordinators. Adetermination is made as to whether the keyword corresponds to a onetime event or an ongoing activity or event (decision 1670). If thekeyword does not correspond to a one time event, decision 1670 branchesto “no” branch 1672 bypassing the release of keyword space from thePeople Planner System. On the other hand, if the keyword corresponds toa one time event, decision 1670 branches to “yes” branch 1678 whereupona People Planner System administrator retains a copy of a report or datafile with the employees selected for the keyword (step 1680) and theadministrator releases the data space used to store the keyword data sothat it can be used for other keywords (step 1690). Keyword processingthereafter ends at 1695.

FIG. 17 a is a diagram of an employee managed in a matrix organizationwith multiple managers. In the example shown, employee 1700 reports tothree different managers—manager A (1710), manager B (1720), and managerC (1730). Also shown are the effort, or activity, levels that theemployee is expected to provide to the various managers' departments. Inthe example shown, employee 1700 spends fifty percent of his timeworking for manager A (1710), twenty percent of his time working formanager B (1720), and thirty percent of his time working for manager C(1730).

FIG. 17 b is a flowchart used to evaluate and aware employees managed ina matrix organization with multiple managers. Processing commences at1750 whereupon the first manager evaluates the employee and providessalary increase, stock award, award, and evaluation ratings for theemployee. The manager's evaluation is multiplied (step 1760) by amultiplier corresponding to the amount of work the employee performs forthe manager (i.e. the work percentage discussed in FIG. 17 a). Likewise,the manager's planning of the employee's pay increase is computed (step1765), along with a stock award computation (step 1770), and an awardscomputation (step 1775). A determination is made as to whetheradditional managers need to evaluate the employee (decision 1780). Ifadditional managers need to evaluate the employee, decision 1780branches to “yes” branch 1782 whereupon the next manager evaluates theemployee (step 1785) and processing loops back to multiply the nextmanager's evaluations and preplanning data with the multipliercorresponding to the manager. When all managers that manage the employeehave performed evaluations, decision 1780 branches to “no” branch 1788whereupon the employees total evaluation, salary increase, stock award,and other awards is computed by adding the various factors computed foreach manager (step 1790). The People Planner System can also facilitatecommunication between managers that each manage a given employee so thata fair assessment of the employee's contributions can be made in lightof the employee's efforts and complexity involved in working in multipleareas.

FIG. 18 a is a sample three tier hierarchy chart showing employees andtwo layers of management. Project manager 1800 has three managersreporting to her (department manager A (1805), department manager B(1810), and department manager C (1815)). Each of these departmentmanagers have three employees reporting to them. Employees 1 (1820), 2(1822), and 3 (1824) report to department manager A (1805); Employees 4(1826), 5 (1828), and 6 (1830) report to department manager B (1810));and Employees 7 (1832), 8 (1834), and 9 (1836) report to departmentmanager C (1815). If project manager 1800 wants to hold a managementmeeting to discuss employee contributions and planning factors, sharingher view with the department managers would allow the departmentmanagers to see confidential salary, compensation, and evaluationinformation pertaining to the other department managers. Instead,project manager 1800 can “exclude” the department managers from her viewof people planner data to allow the management team to analyze theemployee planning factors and evaluations without showing informationregarding the department managers. FIG. 18 b shows high level exclusionprocessing and FIG. 19 shows detailed processing involved with settingup shared views and excluding certain employees from the viewedinformation.

FIG. 18 b is a diagram showing managers being excluded from ahigher-level People Planner View. The project manager's normal view(1850) lists employees reporting to the project manager from the exampleshown in FIG. 18 a including three department managers and nineemployees reporting to the department managers. Exclude managers process1855 is performed to create a new project managers view (1860) whichlists the employees without listing the department managers. A grantingprocess (1865) allows the project manager to share the new projectmanager's view (1860) with the department managers. The result is ashared project manager's view (1870) viewable by the project manager(1875), department manager A (1880), department manager B (1885), anddepartment manager C (1890).

FIG. 19 is a flowchart showing employees being selected and removed froma particular People Planner System view. Processing commences at 1900whereupon a list of all reporting employees is displayed on themanager's display device (step 1905). The project (or higher level)manager selects the first employee (such as a reporting manager) toexcluded from a new view (step 1910). The People Planner Data associatedwith the selected employee is excluded from the new view (step 1915). Adetermination is made as to whether the manager wants to exclude moreemployees (such as the department managers) from the new view (decision1920). If the manager wishes to exclude more employees, decision 1920branches to “yes” branch 1925 whereupon the next employee (i.e., thenext department manager) is selected (step 1930) and processing loopsback to excluded the selected employee from the new view. This loopingcontinues until there are no more exclusion to process, at which timedecision 1920 branches to “no” branch 1935.

A determination is made as to whether the manager wishes to save the newview or revise the manager's current view (decision 1940). If themanager wishes to create a new view, decision 1940 branches to “yes”branch 1945 whereupon the manager provides a new view name to identifythe view (step 1950) and the new view is saved using the new view name(step 1955). On the other hand, if the manager simply wants to reviseher current view, decision 1940 branches to “no” branch 1960 whereuponthe revised view is saved (step 1965).

The employees granted access to the view will often be the employeeswhose People Planner Data has been excluded from the view. The excludedemployees can automatically be granted access to the new view or theproject manager can select employees individually.

The manager selects a first employee (i.e., a department manager) togrant access to the new or revised view (step 1970). The selectedemployee is granted access to the new or revised view (step 1975). Adetermination is made as to whether additional grants need to be givenfor the new or revised view (decision 1980). If more grants need to begiven, decision 1980 branches to “yes” branch 1985 whereupon the nextemployee is selected for granting access to the new or revised view(step 1990) and processing loops back to grant the selected employeeaccess to the view. This looping continues until there are no moreemployees that need access to the view, at which time decision 1980branches to “no” branch 1992 and processing ends at 1995.

FIG. 20 is a high level flowchart showing automated activities involvedin managing organizational resources. Processing commences at 2000whereupon resource management preprocessing activities are invoked(predefined process 2010, see FIGS. 21-23 for processing details).

Preprocessing activities determine which organizational areas, skillgroups, and levels are affected by a workforce reduction. During aworkforce reduction employees are identified as surplus employees (i.e.,laid-off), and certain organizational areas may be eliminated. After theorganizational areas, skill groups, and levels have been identified,employees in the identified areas with matching skills and levels areevaluated (predefined process 2020, see FIGS. 24 and 25 for processingdetails) to determine which employees will be identified as surplusemployees. Typically immediate supervisors or management evaluates theemployees.

The evaluations are reviewed, usually by higher levels of management andpossibly by a “project office” that includes human resourceprofessionals that manage the surplus reduction action. Hierarchicalreview (predefined process 2030, see FIG. 28 for processing details)includes in-depth review of employees' evaluations by higher managementlayers, identification of employees as surplus employees, as well asproject office and legal review of employees recommended for surplus bymanagement.

A determination is made as to whether the employee's evaluation shouldbe revised based on a variety of factors (decision 2040). If theevaluation should be revised, decision 2040 branches to “yes” branch2044 which loops back to re-evaluate the employee with guidance providedby management, the project office, or legal review. On the other hand,if the evaluation does not need to be revised, decision 2040 branches to“no” branch 2048 whereupon the proposed surplus reduction is analyzed(predefined process 2050, see FIG. 36 for processing details) todetermine the costs and benefits of performing the surplus reduction.

A determination is made as to whether the proposed surplus reductionneeds to be revised (decision 2060) based upon analyzing the resourcereduction impact. For example, it may be determined that too manyemployees have been identified as surplus that may detrimentally affectthe organization because of the sudden loss of skills. Alternatively, itmay be determined that too few employees have been identified as surplusresulting in less compensation savings than expected. If the proposedresource reduction needs to be revised, decision 2060 branches to “yes”branch 2064 which loops back to adjust surplus parameters andre-evaluate employees based on the readjusted parameters. On the otherhand, if the proposed resource reduction does not need to be revised,decision 2060 branches to “no” branch 2068 whereupon affected employeesare notified and the notification and acknowledgement are tracked andrecorded (predefined process 2070, see FIGS. 37 and 38 for processingdetails). Processing subsequently ends at 2095.

FIG. 21 is a flowchart showing preprocessing activities performed inplanning a resource reduction. Processing commences at 2100 whereuponthe organization's financial data (2110) is analyzed (step 2105). Adetermination is made as to whether the organization needs to reduceresources in order to reduce costs and improve the organization'sfinancial performance (decision 2115). If the organization does not needto reduce resources, decision 2115 branches to “no” branch 2118 andprocessing ends at 2120. On the other hand, if the organization doesneed to reduce resources, decision 2115 branches to “yes” branch 2128whereupon resource reduction preprocessing continues.

Organizational data 2125, describing areas of the organizations such asdepartments, projects, divisions, and functions, are read and analyzed(step 2130). Areas that are no longer needed by the organization areidentified for elimination (step 2140) and stored with other areasidentified for elimination in eliminated areas data store 2145. Areaswith surplus resources are also identified (step 2150) and stored insurplus areas data store 2155.

Surplus resources may include particular skill groups that have moreemployees than needed by the organizational area. For example, asoftware development area may have a larger percentage of businessplanners than is needed to perform the software development activities.In addition, specific skill groups can be identified as having surplusresources. For example, a project developing software using primarilyJava may have a larger percentage of Visual Basic™ programmers thanneeded to perform the Java development. These surplus skill groups areidentified by analyzing the areas with surplus resources (step 2160) andthe resulting analysis is stored in surplus skill groups data store2165.

In order to identify which individual employees should be eliminated assurplus resources, evaluation templates are built for each identifiedskill group that was found to include surplus resources (predefinedprocess 2170, see FIG. 22 for further processing details) and stored ina library of evaluation templates 2175 which will be used by managementto evaluate employees.

Using the identified skill groups, employee data, and planned amount ofsurplus reduction, an estimated planned surplus impact can be generated(predefined process 2170, see FIG. 35 for processing details) toestimate percentages of employees in various skill groups and levelsthat will be identified as surplus in order to attain certain costsavings for the organization. In addition, resource reduction programcosts, such as severance packages for employees identified as surplus,can be estimated during predefined process 2170. Preprocessingactivities thereafter end at 2195.

FIG. 22 is a flowchart showing the creation of evaluation templates forsurplus employees in identified skill groups and levels. Processingcommences at 2300 whereupon a skill code for a template is received(input 2205) by a template creator. A template creator is a person thatdetermines what factors are used to evaluate a particular skill groupand level. For example, a junior level programmer may be reviewedagainst factors such as “Understands Java programming fundamentals” and“Able to prepare Java source code based on design documentation.”Likewise, a senior programmer may have review factors such as “Expertisein all facets of Java,” “Mastery of software design implementation,” and“Ability to lead software team in design goals.”

The input code received from the user is used to locate (step 2220) anexisting skill code and its corresponding review factors from templatesdata store 2210. Templates data store may be implemented using adatabase, such as Lotus Notes™ or another database product. Adetermination is made as to whether the skill code was found in thetemplate data store (decision 2225). If the skill code was found,decision 2225 branches to “yes” branch 2228 whereupon the current reviewfactors corresponding to the skill code are retrieved (step 2230) andthe display factors are displayed to the user allowing the user tomodify and/or delete current review factors corresponding to the skillcode (step 2235). On the other hand, if the skill code was not found,decision 2225 branches to “no” branch 2238 whereupon a new set of reviewfactors is initialized for the new skill code and the new skill code isincluded in the templates data store (step 2240).

A determination is made as to whether the skill code that the userentered is related to one or more skill codes (decision 2245). Forexample, different levels of Java programmers may have similar reviewfactors, with higher level programmers being evaluated against “mastery”of certain factors while lower level programmers may be evaluatedagainst a lower threshold, such as “understanding” or “ability.” Inaddition, higher level skills may have additional review factorscorresponding the responsibilities not required of lower levelemployees, such as team leading and management responsibilities. Thedetermination as to related or similar skill groups may be determinedbased on a skill code naming convention (e.g., all skill codes beginningwith “PRG” are deemed to be have similar or related factors),additional, the user could be prompted to retrieve additional skill codetemplates from which the user could copy review factors and paste intothe skill template upon which the user is working. If there are relatedor similar review factors in other skill groups, decision 2245 branchesto “yes” branch 2248 whereupon a skill code is entered (step 2250) andthe review factors corresponding to the entered skill code are retrieved(step 2255). A determination is made as to whether there are moretemplates that the user wishes to retrieve (decision 2260). If there aremore templates that the user wishes to retrieve, decision 2260 branchesto “yes” branch 2261 which loops back to retrieve the next template.This looping continues until all desired templates are retrievedwhereupon decision 2260 branches to “no” branch 2262. On the other hand,if there are no related or similar review factors from which the usercan copy review factors, decision 2245 branches to “no” branch 2263bypassing steps taken to load related templates.

The user can add, edit, or delete review factors that correspond to thedesired skill code. A user action is received (input 2264). Adetermination is made as to whether the user is modifying an existingreview factor (decision 2265). If the user is modifying an existingreview factor, decision 2265 branches to “yes” branch 2268 whereuponreview factors from loaded templates are displayed (step 2270), the userselects one of the displayed review factors (input 2272), and the userchanges the selected review factor (input 2275). On the other hand, ifthe user wishes to enter a new review factor without copying from anexisting template, decision 2265 branches to “no” branch 2278 and thenew review factor is provided by the user (input 2280).

The modified or added review factor is stored along with the skill codein the template data store (step 2285). A determination is made as towhether the user wants to modify, add, or delete review factorscorresponding to the current template (decision 2290). If the user wantsto perform further actions to the current template, decision 2290branches to “yes” branch 2292 which loops back to process the user'snext action. This looping continues until the user no longer wishes toadd, delete, or modify review factors corresponding to the current skillcode, at which time decision 2290 branches to “no” branch 2294 andprocessing ends at 2295.

FIG. 23 is a flowchart showing organizational areas being eliminated aspart of an organizational resource reduction action. Processingcommences at 2300 whereupon the first eliminated area is retrieved (step2310) from eliminated areas data store 2305. The eliminated areas werepreviously identified during preprocessing activities (see FIG. 21 fordetails).

Employee data 2315 includes data about employees in the organizationincluding data regarding the area, such as department, project,function, and division data that is used to locate the first area in theselected eliminated area (step 2320). A determination is made as towhether an employee was found in the selected eliminated area (decision2330). If an employee was found, decision 2330 branches to “yes” branch2335 whereupon data for the located employee is added (step 2340) toeliminated employees data store 2345. The next employee in theeliminated area is located (step 2350) from employee data 2315 andprocessing loops back to decision 2330. When an employee record is notfound for the eliminated area, decision 2330 branches to “no” branch2355 whereupon data regarding the next eliminated area is retrieved(step 2360) from eliminated areas data store 2305.

A determination is made as to whether data for the next eliminated areawas found (decision 2370). If another eliminated area was found,decision 2370 branches to “yes” branch 2380 whereupon processing loopsback to process the employees within the eliminated area. This loopingcontinues until there are no more eliminated areas to process, at whichtime decision 2370 branches to “no” branch 2390 whereupon processing ofeliminated areas ends at 2395.

FIG. 24 is a flowchart showing the identification of employees forfurther evaluation as part of an organization's resource reductionaction. Processing commences at 2400 whereupon the first surplus area islocated (step 2410) from surplus areas data store 2405. Surplus areasdata stores 2405 includes data regarding surplus areas that wereidentified during preprocessing activities (see FIG. 21 for furtherdetails).

The first employee that works in the selected surplus area is located(step 2420) by reading employee data store 2415 that includes data aboutemployees in the organization, including the area (i.e., department,project, function, division) for which the employee works along with theemployee's skill group (i.e., the type of job the employee has such as aprogrammer, business planner, manager, etc.) and the employee's level(i.e., senior programmer, associate programmer, junior programmer,etc.). A determination is made as to whether an employee was found inthe surplus area (decision 2425). If an employee was found, decision2425 branches to “yes” branch 2428 to further analyze and process theemployee. On the other hand, if an employee was not found, decision 2425branches to “no” branch 2465 to analyze the next surplus area.

If an employee was found in the surplus area, decision 2425 branches to“yes” branch 2428 whereupon the employees skill group is matched (step2430) against the identified surplus skill groups 2435. Duringpreprocessing activities, certain skill groups were identified forreduction (see FIG. 21 for further details). For example, a surplus areamay need to reduce the number of business planners that are employed bythe area but not need to reduce the number of programmers. In addition,levels of employees may be targeted for reduction so that the number ofjunior business planners is reduced while the number of senior businessplanners is not reduced.

A determination is made as to whether the selected employee's skillgroup (and level if applicable) is found in the list of surplus skillgroups (decision 2440). If the employee's skill group was not found inthe list, decision 2440 branches to “no” branch 2442 bypassing the stepof adding the employee to the affected group. On the other hand, if theemployee's skill group was found in the list, decision 2440 branches to“yes” branch 2444 whereupon data regarding the employee (e.g., theemployee's employee number and other identifying information) is added(step 2445) to affected group data store 2450. Affected group data store2450 includes data about employees that will be evaluated to determinewhich employees from the affected group will be laid-off (i.e.,identified as surplus employees, see FIGS. 24-27 for details regardingevaluations of affected employees). Regardless of whether the employeeis in an affected skill group, processing loops back (loop 2455) tolocate the next employee in the area (step 2460) and determine whetheranother employee was found in the area (decision 2425). This loopingcontinues until no more employees are found in the affected area, atwhich point decision 2425 branches to “no” branch 2465 whereupon thenext surplus area is located (step 2470) from surplus area data store2405.

A determination is made as to whether a next surplus area is found(decision 2475). If a next surplus area is found, decision 2475 branchesto “yes” branch 2480 which loops back to process the employees in thenext area and determine which of those employees are added to theaffected group. This looping continues until there are no more surplusareas to process at which point decision 2475 branches to “no” branch2485 whereupon the affected employees are evaluated (predefined process2490, see FIG. 25 for details) and processing ends at 2495.

FIG. 25 is a flowchart showing the evaluation of employees in identifiedskill groups and levels for resource reduction. Processing commences at2500 whereupon a first department within the identified surplus area isretrieved (step 2510). A determination is made as to whether adepartment was found within the identified surplus area (decision 2515)as processing will continue until all departments in the identifiedsurplus area have been processed. When there are no more departments toprocess, decision 2515 branches to “no” branch 2518 whereupon processingends at 2520. On the other hand, while there are departments to process,decision 2515 branches to “yes” branch 2522 whereupon a first employeefrom within the selected department is retrieved (step 2525) fromaffected employees data store 2530.

A determination is made as to whether an employee was found within theselected department (decision 2535) as processing of the department willcontinue until all employees within the department have been processed.If there are no more employees within the selected department, decision2535 branches to “no” branch 2590 which locates (step 2595) the nextdepartment from surplus areas data store 2505 and loops back to processthe next department until all departments have been processed. On theother hand, if an employee from the selected department was found inaffected group data store 2530, decision 2535 branches to “yes” branch2538 in order to process the selected employee.

A template corresponding to the selected employee's skill group andlevel (e.g., junior programmer, senior business analyst, etc.) isretrieved (step 2540) from evaluation templates data store 2545. A firstreview factor is selected from the retrieved evaluation template (step2550). The reviewer, usually the employee's manager or supervisor,evaluates the selected employee using the criteria set forth in theselected review factor (step 2555). A determination is made as towhether there are more review factors in the evaluation template to usein the employee's evaluation (decision 2560). If there are more reviewfactors, decision 2560 branches to “yes” branch 2562 which loops back toselect the next review factor from the evaluation template (step 2565)and evaluate the employee using this review factor. This loopingcontinues until there are no more review factors to use from theselected evaluation template, at which point decision 2560 branches to“no” branch 2568 whereupon the employee's evaluation is stored (step2570) in evaluated employees data store 2575, and the next employee inthe selected department is located (step 2580) from affected group datastore 2530 and processing loops back to process the next employee. Thislooping continues until there are no more employees in the selecteddepartment to process, at which time decision 2535 branches to “no”branch 2590 to locate the next department within the surplus area.

FIG. 26 is a flowchart showing the grouping and sorting of evaluatedemployees for resource reduction activities. Processing commences at2600 whereupon a first surplus skill group is located from surplus skillgroups data store 2605. A determination is made as to whether a surplusskill group as located (decision 2615) as processing continues until allskill groups have been processed. If the next skill group is not located(i.e., all skill groups have been processed), decision 2615 branches to“no” branch 2618 whereupon the employees are analyzed (predefinedprocess 2620, see FIG. 27 for further details) and processing ends at2622.

On the other hand, if a surplus skill group was found, decision 2615branches to “yes” branch 2624 whereupon the first level within the skillgroup is selected (step 2625) from job levels data store 2630. Adetermination is made as to whether a first (next) job level for theselected skill group was found (decision 2635) as all levels for theselected skill group are processed.

A job level within a skill group often notes an employee's experience orproficiency at within the skill group. For example, a new programmer mayhave a level of “Junior,” with an intermediate programmer having a levelof “Associate,” and an experienced programmer having a level of“Senior.” In addition, some organizations give employees numeric oralphanumeric levels to note experience, such as level “1” being a juniorlevel ranging to higher numbers (i.e., level “10”) for more experiencedlevels.

If the job level was found for the selected skill group, decision 2635branches to “yes” branch 2638 to process the skill group/levelcombination. Employees with the selected skill group and level areselected (step 2640) from evaluated employees data store 2645. Theselected group is then sorted by the employees' evaluation in order tofurther evaluate employee needs (step 2650). In a database environment,the group could be selected and sorted with an SQL query statement(e.g., “SELECT * FROM EVALUATED_EMPLOYEES WHERE SKILL_GROUP=“PROGRAMMER”AND LEVEL=“JUNIOR”, ORDER BY EVALUATION).

The next level within the skill group is located (step 2680) forprocessing from job levels data store 2630 and processing loops back toprocess the next level. This looping continues until a next job level isnot located, at which point decision 2635 branches to “no” branch 2690whereupon the next surplus skill group is located (step 2695) fromsurplus skill groups data store 2605 and processing loops back toprocess the next skill group. This looping continues until there are nomore skill groups to process, at which point decision 2615 branches to“no” branch 2618 whereupon the grouped and sorted employees are analyzed(predefined process 2620, see FIG. 27 for processing details) andprocessing thereafter ends at 2622.

FIG. 27 is a flowchart showing the automated analysis of evaluatedemployees with respect to an organization's needs in terms of resourcesfor various skill groups and levels. Processing commences at 2700whereupon the first surplus skill group and level are selected (step2710) from surplus plan data store 2720. Surplus plan data store 2720includes surplus planning data for various skill groups and levels thatare developed during resource reduction planning. As shown, skill group“A” (i.e., “programmers”) has a planned reduction of 5% for level 1employees and a reduction of 14% for level 2 employees, while skillgroup “B” (i.e., “business planners”) has a planned reduction of 17% forlevel 1 employees and a reduction of 12% for level 2 employees.

Employees with the selected skill group and level are selected (step2725) from sorted employees data store 2730. The surplus percentage ofemployees is selected from the group based upon the employees'evaluations (step 2740) so that those employees with worse evaluationsare recommended for surplus before employees with better evaluations.The selected percentage of employees is stored (step 2750) inrecommended surplus data store 2760. Recommended surplus data store 2760thus includes a list of employees that are recommended for surplus basedupon the surplus percentage for the employees' skill group and level andthe employees' evaluations.

The next level within the skill group is selected (step 2765) fromsurplus plan data store 2720. A determination is made as to whether anext level was found (decision 2770). If it was found, decision 2770branches to “yes” branch 2772 which loops back to process the selectedlevel. This looping continues until all levels within the selected skillgroup have been processed, at which time decision 2770 branches to “no”branch 2776 to process the next skill group.

The first level within the next skill group is selected (step 2780)within surplus plan data store 2720 (step 2780). A determination is madeas to whether a next surplus skill group was found (decision 2785). If anext skill group was found, decision 2785 branches to “yes” branch 2788which loops back to process the first level within the selected skillgroup. This looping continues until there are no more skill groups toprocess, at which time decision 2785 branches to “no” branch 2792 andprocessing ends at 2795.

FIG. 28 is a flowchart showing hierarchical management review ofemployees' skill evaluations. Line management processing commences at2800 whereupon the manager evaluates the selected employee (predefinedprocess 2804, see FIG. 25 for processing details). The manager mayreceive a review of the manager's evaluation of the employee fromreviewing management or from the personnel project office managing theresource reduction (step 2808). A determination is made as to whetherthe manager receives instructions or recommendations to rework theemployee's evaluation (decision 2810). For example, the manager may havegiven a low evaluation to an employee with a stellar work history thatis receiving stock options. In this instance, it is very likely that themanager erred in evaluating the employee and the employee's evaluationshould be reworked. In this case, decision 2810 branches to “yes” branch2812 to re-evaluate the selected employee. On the other hand, if themanager does not receive a rework instruction or recommendation fromreviewing management or the project office, decision 2810 branches to“no” branch 2814 and processing ends at 2816.

Reviewing management processing commences at 2820 whereupon reviewingmanagement receives an employee evaluation from a manager along with themanager's digital signature authenticating the evaluation (step 2824).The reviewing manager(s) analyze the evaluation (predefined process2828, see FIG. 29 for processing details). The reviewing manager(s)determine whether to agree with the manager's evaluation based upon theanalysis (decision 2832). If the reviewing manager(s) do not agree withthe manager's evaluation of the employee, decision 2832 branches to “no”branch 2834 whereupon a message is returned to the manager instructingthe manager to rework the evaluation (or further explain the manager'sevaluation) along with a digital signature authenticating the source ofthe message (step 2836) and reviewing manager processing ends at 2868.

On the other hand, if the reviewing manager(s) agree with the manager'sdecision, decision 2832 branches to “yes” branch 2838 whereupon theemployee is compared to other employees within the same skill group andlevel to determine whether to recommend the selected employee forsurplus (predefined process 2840, see FIG. 32 for processing details). Adetermination is made as to whether reviewing management wishes torecommend the selected employee for surplus (decision 2844). Ifmanagement does not wish to recommend the employee for surplus, decision2844 branches to “no” branch 2846 and reviewing management processing ofthe employee ends at 2868. On the other hand, if reviewing managementdoes wish to recommend that the selected employee be laid off (e.g.,surplus), decision 2844 branches to “yes” branch 2848 whereupon therecommendation is sent to the project office for further review alongwith a digital signature authenticating the sender of the message (step2852). The reviewing management receives the project office's action(step 2856). A determination is made by the reviewing management as towhether the surplus recommendation was accepted by the project office(decision 2860). If the recommendation was not accepted, decision 2860branches to “no” branch 2862 which loops back to re-analyze andre-evaluate the employee. On the other hand, if the recommendation wasaccepted, decision 2860 branches to “yes” branch 2864 and reviewingmanagement processing of the employee ends at 2868.

Project office processing commences at 2870 whereupon the project officereceives a surplus recommendation for an employee along with a digitalsignature authenticating the reviewing management that made therecommendation (step 2872). The project office reviews therecommendation (predefined process 2876, see FIG. 33 for processingdetails). Legal review of the surplus recommendation is also performed(predefined process 2880, see FIG. 34 for processing details) todetermine whether the determination may violate any applicableemployment laws. A determination is made as to whether the projectoffice agrees with the surplus recommendation (decision 2884). If theproject office does not agree with the surplus recommendation, decision2884 branches to “no” branch 2886 whereupon the recommendation isreturned to the reviewing management with comments and possibleinstructions along with the project office's digital signatureauthenticating the project office as the sender of the message (step2888) and project office processing of the employee ends at 2895. On theother hand, if the project office agrees with the surplusrecommendation, decision 2884 branches to “yes” branch 2890 whereuponthe selected employee is added to the list of surplus employees (step2992) and project office processing of the employee ends at 2895.

FIG. 29 is a flowchart showing more detailed hierarchical managementanalysis of employees' skill evaluations. Processing commences at 2900whereupon a determination is made as to whether the manager's evaluationof the employee identified the employee as having relatively low skillsfor the employee's skill group and level (decision 2905). If theemployee was identified as a low-skills employee in the manager'sevaluation, decision 2905 branches to “yes” branch 2908 for low-skillanalysis. On the other hand, if the employee was not identified as alow-skills employee, decision 2905 branches to “no” branch 2928 forhigher skill analysis.

Branch 2908 leads to an analysis of the low-skills evaluation(predefined process 2910, see FIG. 30 for processing details). Adetermination is made as to whether the analysis also revealed that theemployee has relatively low skills for the skill group and level(decision 2915). If the analysis determined that the employee has lowskills, decision 2915 branches to “yes” branch 2918 whereupon a flag isset indicating that the analysis agrees with the manager's evaluation(step 2920). On the other hand, if the analysis did not determine thatthe employee had low skills, decision 2915 branches to “no” branch 2922whereupon the flag is set indicating that the analysis did not agreewith the manager's evaluation (step 2925).

Returning to decision 2905, branch 2928 leads to an analysis of thehigh-skills evaluation (predefined process 2930, see FIG. 31 forprocessing details). A determination is made as to whether the analysisalso revealed that the employee has relatively high skills for the skillgroup and level (decision 2935). If the analysis determined that theemployee has high skills, decision 2935 branches to “yes” branch 2938whereupon a flag is set indicating that the analysis agrees with themanager's evaluation (step 2940). On the other hand, if the analysis didnot determine that the employee had high skills, decision 2935 branchesto “no” branch 2942 whereupon the flag is set indicating that theanalysis did not agree with the manager's evaluation (step 2945).

A determination is made as to whether the analysis agreed with themanager's evaluation of the employee (decision 2950). If the analysisagreed with the manager's evaluation, decision 2950 branches to “yes”branch 2952 whereupon analysis of the manager's evaluation ends at 2990.On the other hand, if the analysis did not agree with the manager'sevaluation, decision 2950 branches to “no” branch 2958 whereupon theevaluation is discussed with the manager (step 2960) to determinewhether other factors exist warranting the manager's evaluation. Thediscussion may be telephonic or via electronic messaging and the resultsmay be stored along with the manger's original evaluation. Adetermination is made as to whether the reviewing management now agreeswith the manager's evaluation given the additional information (decision2970). If the reviewing management now agrees with the manager'sevaluation, decision 2970 branches to “yes” branch 2975 whereupon theflag indicating agreement is switched indicating that reviewingmanagement now agrees with the manager's evaluation (step 2980)whereupon processing ends at 2990. If the reviewing management stilldoes not agree with the manager's evaluation of the employee, decision2970 branches to “no” branch 2985 whereupon the agreement flag remains“no” and processing ends at 2990.

FIG. 30 is a flowchart showing detailed hierarchical management analysisof employee evaluations identified as having low skills. Processingcommences at 3000 whereupon planning data and actual data correspondingto the employee is retrieved (step 3010) from employee data store 3005.

An agreement flag is initiated to “yes” indicating that the reviewingmanagement assumes that the manager's evaluation of the employee isacceptable (step 3012). A determination is made as to whether theemployee has been identified as a “top contributor” by the manager(decision 3015). If the employee has been identified as a topcontributor, decision 3015 branches to “yes” branch 3018 whereupon theagreement flag is set “no” (step 3020). On the other hand, if theemployee has not been identified as a top contributor, decision 3015branches to “no” branch 3022 whereupon the agreement flag is notchanged.

A determination is made as to whether the employee is receiving or hasbeen recommended for stock options by the employee's manager (decision3025). If the employee is receiving stock options or has beenrecommended for stock options, decision 3025 branches to “yes” branch3028 whereupon the agreement flag is set to “no” (step 3030). On theother hand, if the employee is not receiving stock options and has notbeen recommended for stock options, decision 3025 branches to “no”branch 3032 whereupon the agreement flag is not changed.

A determination is made as to whether the employee has been recommendedfor a significant salary increase by the employee's manager (decision3035). If the employee has been recommended for a significant salaryincrease, decision 3035 branches to “yes” branch 3038 whereupon theagreement flag is set to “no” (step 3040). On the other hand, if theemployee has not been recommended for a significant salary increase,decision 3035 branches to “no” branch 3042 whereupon the agreement flagis not changed.

A determination is made as to whether the employee has been identifiedas having skills critical to the success of the organization (decision3045). If the employee has been identified as having skills critical tothe success of the organization, decision 3045 branches to “yes” branch3048 whereupon the agreement flag is set to “no” (step 3050). On theother hand, if the employee has not been identified as having skillscritical to the success of the organization, decision 3045 branches to“no” branch 3052 whereupon the agreement flag is not changed.

A determination is made as to whether the employee has been recommendedfor a promotion (decision 3060). If the employee has been has beenrecommended for a promotion, decision 3060 branches to “yes” branch 3065whereupon the agreement flag is set to “no” (step 3070). On the otherhand, if the employee has not been recommended for a promotion, decision3060 branches to “no” branch 3075 whereupon the agreement flag is notchanged.

Other determinations can be used, such as analyzing the employee's priorjob performance evaluations, to also aid in determining whether themanager's evaluation of the employee as a low-skilled employee iscorrect or whether such decision warrants further in-depth review.Processing thereafter ends at 3095.

FIG. 31 is a flowchart showing detailed hierarchical management analysisof employee evaluations identified as having high skills. Processingcommences at 3100 whereupon planning data and actual data correspondingto the employee is retrieved (step 3110) from employee data store 3105.

An agreement flag is initiated to “yes” indicating that the reviewingmanagement assumes that the manager's evaluation of the employee isacceptable (step 3112). A determination is made as to whether theemployee has been identified as a “low contributor” by the manager(decision 3115). If the employee has been identified as a lowcontributor, decision 3115 branches to “yes” branch 3118 whereupon theagreement flag is set “no” (step 3120). On the other hand, if theemployee has not been identified as a low contributor, decision 3115branches to “no” branch 3122 whereupon the agreement flag is notchanged.

A determination is made as to whether the manager planned on giving theemployee no salary increase (decision 3135). If the employee wasscheduled to receive no salary increase, decision 3135 branches to “yes”branch 3138 whereupon the agreement flag is set “no” (step 3140). On theother hand, if the employee was scheduled to receive a salary increase,decision 3135 branches to “no” branch 3142 whereupon the agreement flagis not changed.

Other determinations can be used, such as analyzing the employee's priorjob performance evaluations, to also aid in determining whether themanager's evaluation of the employee as a high-skilled employee iscorrect or whether such decision warrants further in-depth review.Processing thereafter ends at 3195.

FIG. 32 is a flowchart showing management's comparison of employeeswithin similar skill groups and levels for surplus recommendations.Processing commences at 3200 whereupon employees with the same skillgroup and level are selected (step 3205) from sorted employees datastore 3210. Sorted employees data store 3210 includes employees groupedby skill group and level and sorted by the employees' evaluations.

The managers' evaluations of the selected employees are displayed to themanger(s) determining whether to retain or surplus employees (step3215). The first review factor corresponding to the selected skill groupand level is selected (step 3220). The subject employee's evaluation iscompared to the other selected evaluations based on the review factor(step 3225). The analysis can include review of both objective andsubjective measures corresponding to the employees. A determination ismade as to whether there are more review factors to use for analysis(decision 3230). If there are more review factors to consider, decision3230 branches to “yes” branch 3232 which loops back to select the nextreview factor for the selected skill group and level (step 3235) andanalyze the employee based on the next review factor. This loopingcontinues until all review factors have been considered, at which pointdecision 3230 branches to “no” branch 3238. The reviewing manager(s)form an initial recommendation (step 3240) as to whether the selectedemployee should be laid-off (i.e., surplus employee). The system'sautomated recommendation is retrieved (step 3245) from recommendedsurplus data store 3250 (see FIG. 27 for details in the formation of therecommended surplus list).

A determination is made as to whether the managers initialrecommendation is the same as the automated recommendation (decision3255). If the recommendations are the same, decision 3255 branches to“yes” branch 3258 whereupon the initial recommendation is finalized(step 3260) and processing returns at 3295. On the other hand, if theinitial recommendation is not the same as the automated recommendation,decision 3255 branches to “no” branch 3265 whereupon anotherdetermination is made as to whether the managers agree with theautomated recommendation (decision 3270). If the managers agree with theautomated recommendation, decision 3270 branches to “yes” branch 3290which loops back to re-analyze the subject employee. This loopingcontinues until either the managers' recommendation is the same as theautomated recommendation (i.e., decision 3255 branches to “yes” branch3258) or the managers no longer agree with the automated recommendation(i.e., decision 3270 branches to “no” branch 3275). On the other hand,if the managers do not agree with the automated recommendation (i.e.,the managers' initial recommendation is preferred), decision 3270branches to “no” branch 3275 whereupon the initial recommendation isfinalized (step 3280) and processing returns at 3295.

FIG. 33 is a flowchart showing project office review of surplusrecommendations. Project office review processing commences at 3300whereupon the project office receives a surplus recommendation for anemployee (step 3305). Corporate surplus guidelines data store 3315 thatdefine parameters corresponding to the resource reduction are read (step3310). A determination is made as to whether the employee recommendedfor surplus is in one of the affected areas (decision 3320). If theemployee is not in one of the affected areas, decision 3320 branches to“no” branch 3322 whereupon the surplus recommendation is rejected andreturned to management with instructions for reworking therecommendation (step 3380) and processing returns at 3395.

On the other hand, if the employee is in one of the affected areas,decision 3320 branches to “yes” branch 3324 whereupon a determination ismade as to whether the employee's skill group falls within the selectedskill group (decision 3324). If the employee's skill group (andoptionally the employee's level) are not within an affected skill group,decision 3325 branches to “no” branch 3326 whereupon the surplusrecommendation is rejected and returned to management with instructionsfor reworking the recommendation (step 3380) and processing returns at3395.

On the other hand, if the employee's skill group falls within theselected skill group, decision 3325 branches to “yes” branch 3328whereupon the employee's evaluation is analyzed by the project office(predefined process 3330, see FIG. 29 for processing details). Adetermination is made as to whether the employee's evaluation isacceptable (decision 3340). If the evaluation of the employee is notacceptable, decision 3340 branches to “no” branch 3342 whereupon thesurplus recommendation is rejected and returned to management withinstructions for reworking the recommendation (step 3380) and processingreturns at 3395.

On the other hand, if the evaluation of the employee is acceptable,decision 3340 branches to “yes” branch 3348 whereupon the employee'sevaluation is compared to other employees in the same skill group andlevel (predefined process 3350, see FIG. 32 for processing details). Adetermination is made as to whether the project office agrees withmanagement's surplus recommendation for the employee (decision 3355). Ifthe managers' recommendation is not acceptable, decision 3355 branchesto “no” branch 3356 whereupon the surplus recommendation is rejected andreturned to management with instructions for reworking therecommendation (step 3380) and processing returns at 3395.

On the other hand, if the managers' surplus recommendation isacceptable, decision 3355 branches to “yes” branch 3358 whereupon theemployee is analyzed (step 3360) using additional corporate surplusguidelines set forth in corporate surplus guidelines 3315. Adetermination is made as to whether the surplus recommendation isacceptable in light of any additional corporate surplus guidelines(decision 3370). If the surplus recommendation is not acceptable,decision 3370 branches to “no” branch 3372 whereupon the surplusrecommendation is rejected and returned to management with instructionsfor reworking the recommendation (step 3380) and processing returns at3395. On the other hand, if the surplus recommendation is acceptable,decision 3370 branches to “yes” branch 3374 whereupon a flag is setindicating that the project office agrees with the managers' surplusrecommendation regarding the employee and processing returns at 3395.

FIG. 34 is a flowchart showing legal review of surplus recommendations.Legal review processing commences at 3400 whereupon the employee'semployment data is reviewed (step 3405) using local employment laws(data store 3410) applicable to the employee and the organization. Somelaws may require additional severance compensation or benefits beprovided to the employee based on the employee's employment factors. Forexample, a local law may require employees to receive a minimum of fourweeks of severance pay regardless of the number of years the employeehas been employed by the organization. Any additional compensationneeded to comply with laws is stored in additional compensation datastore 3415. Likewise, the individual employee's employment data isreviewed against state and national laws (steps 3420 and 3430 andrespective data stores 3425 and 3435) to determine whether additionalcompensation needs to be allocated and included in additionalcompensation data store 3415 in order to process the surplusrecommendation. In addition, the individual employee data is reviewedusing local, state/provincial and national laws to ensure that theemployee can be laid off without violating applicable laws.

A determination is made as to whether the surplus recommendation for theindividual employee can be processed without violating any local,state/provincial, or national laws (decision 3440). If processing thesurplus recommendation would violate any applicable laws, decision 3440branches to “no” branch 3442 whereupon the surplus recommendation isrejected and returned to management to rework along with guidancepertaining to the laws in question (step 3445) and legal reviewprocessing returns at 3495.

On the other hand, if processing the individual employee surplusrecommendation does not violate any applicable laws, decision 3440branches to “yes” branch 3448 in order to aggregate the employees andperform further legal analyses. The employee's data record is moved fromretained employees data store 3455 to surplus employees data store 3460(step 3450). The surplus employees data store is compared with theretained employees data store to ensure that protected classes ofemployees are not being discriminated against in violation of anyapplicable laws (step 3465). The retained employees and surplusemployees are analyzed using local, state/provincial, and national laws(steps 3470, 3475, and 3480 respectively).

A determination is made as to whether the recommendation to surplus theemployee violates any applicable laws when reviewing aggregate employeegroups (decision 3485). The analysis of aggregate groups of employeesmay be delayed until all employees have been analyzed and a completelist of employees recommended as surplus is provided by management. Ifthe recommendation to surplus the employee violates any applicable lawswhen reviewed as a group, decision 3485 branches to “no” branch 3488whereupon the employee data record is moved (step 3490) from surplusemployees data store 3460 back to retained employees data store 3455,the surplus recommendation is rejected and returned to management torework along with guidance pertaining to the laws in question (step3445) and legal review processing returns at 3495. On the other hand, ifthe recommendation to surplus the employee does not violate anyapplicable laws when reviewed as a group, decision 3485 branches to“yes” branch 3492 whereupon processing returns at 3495.

FIG. 35 is a flowchart showing financial impact estimation of a proposedsurplus action prior to evaluation of employees' skills. Impactestimation processing commences at 3500 whereupon general severanceprovisions are established for the organization (step 3505) and storedin general severance provision data store 3510. General severanceprovisions may include benefits and compensation the organization planson providing to surplus employees that are laid off. For example, anorganization may plan on giving each surplus employee two weeks of payfor every year they have worked for the company and six months ofmedical benefits so that the employees can locate and transition todifferent jobs with less personal impact on the affected employees.

Organizational data includes affected area data store 3525 and employeedata store 3515 that includes compensation information for currentemployees. Surplus areas are selected (step 3520) as well as skillgroups and levels (steps 3530 and 3535). The surplus percentage for theskill and level are determined and stored (step 3540). An expectedsavings (i.e., annual salary savings) is calculated by computing theaverage compensation paid to employees of the given skill group andlevel by the estimated number of surplus employees that will be reducedbased on the surplus percentage. A determination is made as to whetherthe general severance provisions are planned for the selected skillgroup (decision 3550). If the general severance provisions are plannedfor the selected skill group, decision 3550 branches to “yes” branch3552 whereupon an estimated cost to surplus the planned percentage ofemployees is calculated using the general severance provisions (step3555). For example, if the average number of years worked and weeklysalary within a given skill group and level is 10 years and $500,respectively, and the organization plans on providing surplus employeeswith 2 weeks pay for each year they have worked, then the estimated costto surplus the group of employees would be 20 weeks of pay multiplied bythe $500 average weekly salary for an estimated cost of $10,000 for eachsurplus employee within the skill group and level. Therefore, if theorganization plans on laying off 15 such employees, the planned costwould be approximately $150,000.

On the other hand, if general severance provisions are not used for theaffected skill group and level, decision 3550 branches to “no” branch3558 to process the different severance provision. For example, anorganization may wish to provide increased severance benefits to aparticular group of employees for certain business reasons. Theseseverance provisions for the given skill group and level are providedand stored (step 3560). An estimated cost to surplus the plannedpercentage of employees is calculated using the special severanceprovisions (step 3565).

A determination is made as to whether there are more affected levelswithin the skill group to process (decision 3570). If there are moreaffected levels, decision 3570 branches to “yes” branch 3572 whereuponprocessing identifies the next level within the skill group (step 3575)and loops back to estimate savings and costs for the next level. Thislooping continues until there are no more affected levels for the skillgroup, at which point decision 3570 branches to “no” branch 3578. Adetermination is made as to whether there are more affected skill groupsto process within the affected organizational areas (decision 3580). Ifthere are more affected skill groups, decision 3580 branches to “yes”branch 3582 whereupon processing identifies the next skill group withinthe affected area (step 3585) and loops back to estimate savings andcosts for the next skill group. This looping continues until there areno more affected skill groups, at which point decision 3580 branches to“no” branch 3588. A total estimated savings and cost are displayed forall affected skill groups and levels (step 3590).

A determination is made as to whether the planned resource reductionneeds to be changed (decision 3595). For example, an organization mayneed to reduce costs by $1 million and the estimated savings onlyindicates that $900 thousand in salaries will be saved by the plannedresource reduction. In this case, more employees will have to beidentified as surplus by increasing the surplus percentage for one ormore skill groups and levels. In addition, costs to perform the resourcereduction may have a budget of $500,000 but, using the planned severanceprovisions the costs are estimated at $600,000. In this case, theseverance provisions can be reduced, for example 2 weeks pay for everyyear worked with a maximum of 10 weeks of pay per employee, to reducethe severance costs. If estimated savings and/or costs need to change,decision 3595 branches to “yes” branch 3596 which loops back to reviseand edit severance provisions and surplus percentages. This loopingcontinues until the estimated costs and savings are acceptable, at whichpoint decision 3595 branches to “no” branch 3598 and processing ends at3599.

FIG. 36 is a flowchart showing financial impact analysis of a surplusaction after evaluating and recommending individual employees forsurplus disposition. Impact analysis processing commences at 3600whereupon a first surplus employee is selected (step 3605) from surplusemployee data store 3615. A total cost and a total savings amount areeach initialized to 0 (step 3620). Savings is calculated as the currenttotal savings amount plus the amount saved based on the selectedemployee's salary (step 3630). A determination is made as to whether theselected employee receives an alternate severance package rather thanthe general severance package (decision 3635) based on the employee'sskill group and/or the employee's level. If the employee receives analternate severance plan, decision 3635 branches to “yes” branch 3638whereupon the alternate severance formula is selected (step 3640) fromseverance provisions data store 3610. On the other hand, if the employeedoes not receive an alternate severance plan, decision 3635 branches to“no” branch 3642 whereupon the general severance formula is selected(step 3645) from severance provisions data store 3610.

Any additional compensation payable to the employee is retrieved (step3650) from additional compensation data store 3625. Additionalcompensation may be payable, for example, to satisfy various employmentlaws pertaining to laying off the particular employee (see FIG. 34 fordetails). The amount of severance payable to the employee is calculatedby using the selected employee's employment data (i.e., compensation),the selected severance formula, and any additional compensation (step3655). The total cost is calculated by adding the severance cost for theselected employee to the current total cost (step 3660). A determinationis made as to whether there are more surplus employees (decision 3670).If there are more surplus employees, decision 3670 branches to “yes”branch 3675 which selects the next surplus employee (step 3680) andloops back to calculate the savings and cost pertaining to the nextselected employee. This looping continues until there are no moresurplus employees, at which point decision 3670 branches to “no” branch3685 whereupon the total savings and severance costs are displayed (step3690) and processing ends at 3495.

FIG. 37 is a flowchart showing management notification of surplusemployees. Employee notification processing commences at 3700 whereupona manager selects a first surplus employee (step 3704). The manager,with possible assistance from other employees in the organization,determines whether a non-compete agreement is needed between theemployee and the organization (step 3708). A non-compete agreement maybe needed if the employee is in possession or knowledge oforganizational trade secrets and the disclosure of the trade secrets tocompetitors would be detrimental to the organization.

A determination is made as to whether a non-compete agreement is needed(decision 3712). If a non-compete agreement is needed, decision 3712branches to “yes” branch 3714 and the necessary non-compete provisionsare added to the employee's data for processing by the employee (step3716). On the other hand, if a non-compete agreement is not needed,decision 3712 branches to “no” branch 3718 which bypasses the step ofadding non-compete provisions to the employee's data.

A notification is prepared (with or without a non-compete agreementdepending on decision 3712) and the notification and surplus informationmaterials are provided to the employee (step 3720). The manager marksthe notification by digitally signing a notification which is includedin a surplus data store along with a timestamp corresponding to themanager's notification (step 3724). A determination is made as towhether there are more employees for the manager to notify (decision3724). If there are more employees to notify, decision 3724 branches to“yes” branch 3730 which loops back to process and notify the nextemployee. This looping continues until there are no more employees tonotify, at which time decision 3728 branches to “no” branch 3734whereupon the manager receives any notices regarding notifications fromthe project office (step 3736). A determination is made as to whetherany project office notifications are received (decision 3740). If anyproject office notifications are received, decision 3740 branches to“yes” branch 3742 which selects the employee data corresponding to thenotification (step 3744) and loops back to notify the selected employee.On the other hand, if the manager does not receive any project officenotifications, decision 3740 branches to “no” branch 3746 and themanager's employee notification processing ends at 3748.

Employee notification processing commences at 3750 whereupon theemployee receives and processes the surplus notice provided by themanager (predefined process 3752, see FIG. 38 for processing details).The notice from the manager may be an electronic notice that has beendigitally signed by the manager so that the employee can authenticatethe sender of the notice. Employee processing thereafter ends at 3756.

Project office notification processing commences at 3760 whereupon theproject office waits for a period of time to allow mangers to notifysurplus employees (step 3764). After the time period elapses, theproject offices selects surplus employees that have not yet beennotified (step 3768). A determination is made as to whether the list ofnon-notified employees is empty (decision 3772). If the list is empty,decision 3772 branches to “yes” branch 3774 and project officenotification processing ends at 3776.

On the other hand, if the list of non-notified surplus employees is notempty, decision 3772 branches to “no” branch 3778 whereupon the firstemployee in the list is selected (step 3780). A notification isprepared, digitally signed, and sent to the selected employee's managerinforming the manager that the employee needs to be informed concerningthe resource reduction (step 3784). A determination is made as towhether there are more surplus employees in the list that have not beennotified (decision 3788). If there are more surplus employees in thelist, decision 3788 branches to “yes” branch 3790 whereupon processingloops to select (step 3792) and notify manager of the next employee inthe list. This looping continues until there are no more employees inthe list, whereupon decision 3788 branches to “no” branch 3794 whichloops back to wait for another time interval (step 3764) before checkingto see if all surplus employees have been notified by their management.This looping continues until the list of non-notified surplus employeesis empty, at which point decision 3772 branches to “yes” branch 3774 andprocessing ends at 3776.

FIG. 38 is a flowchart showing processing of surplus notification andnon-compete obligations by affected employees. Surplus employeeprocessing commences at 3800 whereupon the employee receives (step 3805)original surplus notice 3810 from the employee's management. Theemployee processes the notice (step 3815). In one embodiment, the noticeis an electronic message that is processed by opening the message.

A determination is made as to whether a non-compete agreement isincluded in the surplus notice (decision 3820). If non-competeprovisions are included, decision 3820 branches to “yes” branch 3822whereupon the non-compete provisions and the surplus information isdisplayed to the employee (step 3825). On the other hand, if non-competeprovisions are not included, decision 3820 branches to “no” branch 3828whereupon the surplus information is displayed to the employee (step3830). Surplus information may include information about the employee'sseverance benefits as well as a termination date.

The employee is prompted for a response, such as a digital signature,after viewing the information (step 3835). A determination is made as towhether the employee signed the document indicating the employee'sacknowledgement to the surplus information and agreement to any includednon-compete provisions (decision 3840). If the employee signed thedocument, decision 3840 branches to “yes” branch 3844 whereupon theemployee's digital signature is stored along with any non-competeprovisions (step 3845) and the employee is sent a key (step 3850), suchas a userid/password, to use to access special surplus benefits systemsand data that assist the employee in locating employment either withinor outside the organization as well as transition information. On theother hand, if the employee does not sign the document, decision 3840branches to “no” branch 3842 which bypasses steps 3845 and 3850. Surplusemployee processing thereafter ends at 3855.

Management processing commences at 3860 whereupon the manager waits fora sufficient time for notified employees to sign the documentsconcerning surplus information and/or non-compete obligations (step3865). After the waiting period elapses, employees that report to themanager that have non-compete obligations that have not been signed bythe respective employees are selected (step 3870). A determination ismade as to whether the list of employees is empty (decision 3875). Ifthe list is not empty, decision 3875 branches to “no” branch 3882whereupon the first employee in the list is selected (step 3880) and anotification is prepared and sent (step 3885) from the manager to theemployee asking the employee to sign the document acknowledging theemployee's non-compete obligations.

A determination is made as to whether there are more employees in thelist to notify (decision 3890). If there are more employees, decision3890 branches to “yes” branch 3892 which selects (step 3895) andnotifies the next employee from the list. This looping continues untilthere are no more employees to notify, at which point decision 3890branches to “no” branch 3896 which loops back to wait for a timeinterval (step 3865) and recheck the employee data to determine whetherall employees with non-compete obligations have signed documentsacknowledging such obligations. This looping continues until the list ofemployees that have non-compete obligations and have not signedacknowledgements is empty, at which point decision 3875 branches to“yes” branch 3878 and processing ends at 3899.

FIG. 39 is a hierarchy chart showing relationships between processesinvolved in managing organizational resources. Resource reductionprocessing (module 3900, see FIG. 20) includes modules for preprocessingsurplus data (module 3910, see FIG. 21), work elimination (module 3920,see FIG. 23), evaluation (module 3930), reviewing (module 3940, see FIG.28), impact analysis (module 3950, see FIG. 36), and employeenotification (module 3960).

Preprocessing module 3910 further includes modules to build evaluationtemplates (module 3912, see FIG. 22), and to estimate the impact of theresource reduction (module 3914, see FIG. 35).

Evaluation module 3930 includes modules to identify affected employees(module 3932, see FIG. 24), to evaluate the identified employees (module3934, see FIG. 25), to sort the evaluated employees (module 3936, seeFIG. 26), and to analyze the evaluated employees (module 3938, see FIG.27).

Review module 3940 includes modules to analyze employees by management(module 3941, see FIG. 29), to compare employees with one another inorder to make surplus recommendations (module 3944, see FIG. 32), forproject office review of surplus recommendations (module 3946, see FIG.33), and for legal review of surplus recommendations (module 3948, seeFIG. 34). Analyze employees module 3941 further includes modules foranalyzing low skilled employees (module 3942, see FIG. 30), and foranalyzing high skilled employees (module 3943, see FIG. 31).

Notice module 3460 includes modules for notifying employees (module3462, see FIG. 37) and for receiving acknowledgements from employees(module 3464, see FIG. 38).

FIG. 40 illustrates information handling system 4001 which is asimplified example of a computer system capable of performing thepresent invention. Computer system 4001 includes processor 4000 which iscoupled to host bus 4005. A level two (L2) cache memory 4010 is alsocoupled to the host bus 4005. Host-to-PCI bridge 4015 is coupled to mainmemory 4020, includes cache memory and main memory control functions,and provides bus control to handle transfers among PCI bus 4025,processor 4000, L2 cache 4010, main memory 4020, and host bus 4005. PCIbus 4025 provides an interface for a variety of devices including, forexample, LAN card 4030. PCI-to-ISA bridge 4035 provides bus control tohandle transfers between PCI bus 4025 and ISA bus 4040, universal serialbus (USB) functionality 4045, IDE device functionality 4050, powermanagement functionality 4055, and can include other functional elementsnot shown, such as a real-time clock (RTC), DMA control, interruptsupport, and system management bus support. Peripheral devices andinput/output (I/O) devices can be attached to various interfaces 4060(e.g., parallel interface 4062, serial interface 4064, infrared (IR)interface 4066, keyboard interface 4068, mouse interface 4070, and fixeddisk (FDD) 4072) coupled to ISA bus 4040. Alternatively, many I/Odevices can be accommodated by a super I/O controller (not shown)attached to ISA bus 4040.

BIOS 4080 is coupled to ISA bus 4040, and incorporates the necessaryprocessor executable code for a variety of low-level system functionsand system boot functions. BIOS 4080 can be stored in any computerreadable medium, including magnetic storage media, optical storagemedia, flash memory, random access memory, read only memory, andcommunications media conveying signals encoding the instructions (e.g.,signals from a network). In order to attach computer system 4001 anothercomputer system to copy files over a network, LAN card 4030 is coupledto PCI-to-ISA bridge 4035. Similarly, to connect computer system 4001 toan ISP to connect to the Internet using a telephone line connection,modem 4075 is connected to serial port 4064 and PCI-to-ISA Bridge 4035.

While the computer system described in FIG. 40 is capable of executingthe invention described herein, this computer system is simply oneexample of a computer system. Those skilled in the art will appreciatethat many other computer system designs are capable of performing thecopying process described herein.

One of the preferred implementations of the invention is an application,namely, a set of instructions (program code) in a code module which may,for example, be resident in the random access memory of the computer.Until required by the computer, the set of instructions may be stored inanother computer memory, for example, in a hard disk drive, or in aremovable memory such as an optical disk (for eventual use in a CD ROM)or floppy disk (for eventual use in a floppy disk drive), or downloadedvia the Internet or other computer network. Thus, the present inventionmay be implemented as a computer program product for use in a computer.In addition, although the various methods described are convenientlyimplemented in a general purpose computer selectively activated orreconfigured by software, one of ordinary skill in the art would alsorecognize that such methods may be carried out in hardware, in firmware,or in more specialized apparatus constructed to perform the requiredmethod steps.

While particular embodiments of the present invention have been shownand described, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that,based upon the teachings herein, changes and modifications may be madewithout departing from this invention and its broader aspects and,therefore, the appended claims are to encompass within their scope allsuch changes and modifications as are within the true spirit and scopeof this invention. Furthermore, it is to be understood that theinvention is solely defined by the appended claims. It will beunderstood by those with skill in the art that is a specific number ofan introduced claim element is intended, such intent will be explicitlyrecited in the claim, and in the absence of such recitation no suchlimitation is present. For non-limiting example, as an aid tounderstanding, the following appended claims contain usage of theintroductory phrases “at least one” and “one or more” to introduce claimelements. However, the use of such phrases should not be construed toimply that the introduction of a claim element by the indefinitearticles “a” or “an” limits any particular claim containing suchintroduced claim element to inventions containing only one such element,even when the same claim includes the introductory phrases “one or more”or “at least one” and indefinite articles such as “a” or “an”; the sameholds true for the use in the claims of definite articles.

1. A method of tracking surplus reduction actions, said methodcomprising: receiving a surplus reduction action from a user, whereinthe user is an employee and wherein the surplus reduction actionincludes a surplus acknowledgment; identifying a user identifiercorresponding to the user; storing the user identifier and datacorresponding to the surplus reduction action in a nonvolatile storagearea; providing benefits data to the employee in response to receivingthe employee's surplus acknowledgement; sending the employee anon-compete agreement; receiving a digital signature from the employeecorresponding to the non-compete agreement; storing the employee'sdigital signature in the nonvolatile storage area; selecting a group ofidentified surplus employees; analyzing digital signatures received fromone or more of the identified surplus employees; determining based onthe analysis which of the identified surplus employees have not provideddigital signatures in response to non-compete agreements; and sending areminder notification to the determined group of surplus employees. 2.The method as described in claim 1 further comprising: authenticatingthe digital signature received from the employee.
 3. The method asdescribed in claim 1 further comprising: identifying one or more surplusemployees that have confidential knowledge of an organization; andwriting a non-compete indicator to a non-compete data storage areacorresponding to the identified surplus employees, wherein thenon-compete agreement is sent to surplus employees in response to theidentification.
 4. An information handling system comprising: one ormore processors; a memory accessible by the processors; a nonvolatilestorage area accessible by the processors; a tracking tool for trackingsurplus reduction actions, the tracking tool comprising softwareinstructions stored in the memory, which, when executed by theprocessor, cause the information handling system to perform a methodcomprising: receiving a surplus reduction action from a user, whereinthe user is an employee and wherein the surplus reduction actionincludes a surplus acknowledgment; identifying a user identifiercorresponding to the user; storing the user identifier and datacorresponding to the surplus reduction action in the nonvolatile storagearea; providing benefits data to the employee in response to receivingthe employee's surplus acknowledgement; sending the employee anon-compete agreement; receiving a digital signature from the employeecorresponding to the non-compete agreement; storing the employee'sdigital signature in the nonvolatile storage area; selecting a group ofidentified surplus employees; analyzing digital signatures received fromone or more of the identified surplus employees; determining based onthe analysis which of the identified surplus employees have not provideddigital signatures in response to non-compete agreements; and sending areminder notification to the determined group of surplus employees. 5.The information handling system as described in claim 4 wherein themethod further comprises: authenticating the digital signature receivedfrom the employee.
 6. The information handling system as described inclaim 4 wherein the method further comprises: identifying one or moresurplus employees that have confidential knowledge of an organization;and writing a non-compete indicator to a non-compete data storage areacorresponding to the identified surplus employees, wherein thenon-compete agreement is sent to surplus employees in response to theidentification.
 7. A computer program product stored in a computerstorage media, the computer storage media containing instructions forexecution by a computer, which, when executed by the computer, cause thecomputer to perform a method for tracking surplus reduction actions,said method comprising: receiving a surplus reduction action from auser, wherein the user is an employee and wherein the surplus reductionaction includes a surplus acknowledgment; identifying a user identifiercorresponding to the user; storing the user identifier and datacorresponding to the surplus reduction action in the nonvolatile storagearea; providing benefits data to the employee in response to receivingthe employee's surplus acknowledgement; sending the employee anon-compete agreement; receiving a digital signature from the employeecorresponding to the non-compete agreement; storing the employee'sdigital signature in the nonvolatile storage area; selecting a group ofidentified surplus employees; analyzing digital signatures received fromone or more of the identified surplus employees; determining, based onthe analysis which of the identified surplus employees have not provideddigital signatures in response to non-compete agreements; and sending areminder notification to the determined group of surplus employees. 8.The computer program product as described in claim 7 wherein the methodfurther comprises: authenticating the digital signature received fromthe employee.
 9. The computer program product as described in claim 7wherein the method further comprises: identifying one or more surplusemployees that have confidential knowledge of an organization; andwriting a non-compete indicator to a non-compete data storage areacorresponding to the identified surplus employees, wherein thenon-compete agreement is sent to surplus employees in response to theidentification.